WP Pro Online

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has partnered with Ava Labs, the company building out layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, to help scale blockchain adoption across enterprises, institutions and governments, the two firms exclusively told TechCrunch.

“Looking forward, web3 and blockchain is inevitable,” Howard Wright, VP and global head of startups at AWS, said to TechCrunch. “No one can call the time or date or quarter that it’s going to happen and it’ll be mainstream, but we’ve seen the cycles of growth before. The velocity of this one seems like it’s accelerating and we’re just excited to be a part of this.”

The partnership intends to make it easier for individuals to launch and manage nodes on Avalanche while also aiming to give the network more strength and flexibility for developers.

AWS will support Avalanche’s infrastructure and decentralized application (dApp) ecosystem, alongside one-click node deployments, through its marketplace. The affiliation will also include Ava Labs joining AWS Activate, a program that helps startups and early-stage entrepreneurs get started on its platform.

“For us this means a lot of things,” John Wu, president of Ava Labs, said to TechCrunch. “We have over 500 applications on the chain and we would love to give them a better experience and now we have a real partnership that we can direct to the Activate program. On top of that, our users are always looking for a better experience. The one-click node is an incredible way to do it.”

A number of blockchains already use AWS to power their networks — about 25% of all Ethereum workloads in the world run on AWS, according to its website. The technology itself is “natively agnostic” and supports all blockchain protocols, Wright said, though this is AWS’ first foundational partnership with a blockchain.

Ava Labs plans to add its Subnet deployment as a managed service to the AWS marketplace, so both individuals and institutions can launch their own custom Subnets easily. Subnets are a part of Avalanche’s scaling solution that divert traffic away from the main blockchain and allow projects to stake its native token, AVAX, while creating their own layer-1 or layer-2 blockchains.

“This is the beginning of something much, much bigger,” Wu said, adding that the Subnets will allow developers “to spin up their own blockchain, a full blockchain, in Amazon very easily.”

Last quarter, Avalanche started developing five to six live Subnets, Wu said. But in the testnet phase, there are over 100 Subnets that will be deployed in the next six to 12 months “at least.” “We’re looking forward to sharing this partnership with the hundreds of Subnets that will be launched this year […] so I’m excited about what this can be, not just what it is.”

Wright echoed that sentiment: “When you multiply Activate times Avalanche times Subnet, you have something that’s a seminal moment. I think blockchain [technology] will become a commonplace and used in our marketplace by developers.”

Ava Labs has also become a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), giving the firm access to deploy offerings on AWS with more than 100,000 partners in over 150 countries, Wright said. “[APN] with Ava Labs and Avalanche is the jet fuel for blockchain and crypto that will democratize access for all corners of the world.”

Avalanche is far from the first startup to come through Amazon’s network, Wright shared. “Over 200,000 startups came through our doors, so we know what excellence looks like. That’s [including] Netflix, Uber and Airbnb — they have redefined verticals and we have the audacity to think others [like them] are out there, including Ava.”

“We’re still in the early stages of enterprises and governments building on-chain,” Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, said to TechCrunch. But the pace of these initiatives will accelerate now that Avalanche and AWS are delivering a more complete and more reliable solution for their needs, Sirer added.

With that said, the size of this network could significantly extend the reach of the crypto-based company and its developers building on its blockchain. “The underlying technology and capabilities is something we’re trying to tap into with John and his team,” Wright said. “It comes back to ease and access.”

And the “ease and access” that both AWS and Avalanche aim to provide through the partnership is only going to accelerate adoption, Wu thinks.

“A lot of the developers and newer entrepreneurs are crossovers from web2 into web3, it’s no longer hard-core web3 people,” Wu said. “And I think with them, they already have great experience with Amazon and having Activate and Avalanche will only make it easier for the crossover and it will be an accelerator and amplifier for that.”

The two companies are also collaborating on events for entrepreneurs and developers through Avalanche Summit, Avalanche Creates and hackathons to help builders build on the blockchain.

“We aspire to be strategic long-term partners; it’s a differentiating and motivating factor for us,” Wright said. “So the complement of the Subnets and our Activate we think is the perfect time, perfect opportunity and we humbly think we’ll look back years in time and see this as a significant time for blockchain expansion.”

As for the future for AWS? It plans to be “more proximate to developers and partners,” Wright said. “Not just a Seattle headquarters […] we’re trying to bring this to the proverbial seven kids in a garage somewhere and we’re going to be more proximate and nimble with high-value partners like Ava.”

“We want to push the envelope of what’s possible,” Wright said.

AWS partners with Avalanche to scale blockchain solutions for enterprises, governments by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

Privacy watchers keen to dig into the regulatory reasoning underpinning two major decisions against Meta earlier this month — which struck down Facebook and Instagram’s claim of contractual necessity as a valid legal basis to run behavioral advertising on users in the European Union — can now sift through the detail after the complainant, privacy rights group noyb, published the decision documents online.

You can find the 188-page Facebook decision here and the 196-page Instagram decision here — both of which feature redactions made by Meta as it was allowed to remove commercially sensitive information so some juicy details are missing.

(For example, a paragraph in the Facebook document where the company provides an estimate of how long it will take it to apply the compliance orders has been blacked out, along with another sentence from this section in which it details the work involved. So we can only speculate whether words have actually been covered here — or just a line of screaming emojis.)

Meta’s lead data protection regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), issued the final decisions but only after more than a year of dispute with over EU DPAs who disagreed with its draft decision (which did not object to Meta claiming contractual necessity to microtarget ads); and, at the last, after incorporating a binding decision by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) — which settled the dispute by forcing the DPC to reject Meta’s claim of contractual necessity.

The EDPB also required Meta to substantially increase the size of the financial penalty issued to Meta for breaching the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

So while the Irish DPC’s name and branding is on these documents they are a product of a co-regulatory process that’s baked into the GDPR, via a cooperation mechanism for dealing with cross-border cases.

Details in the document are already powering fresh attacks on the DPC over its much critized approach to GDPR enforcement — with noyb questioning why the Irish regulator has amended the (binding) EDPB decision — which it says requested a three month period for compliance with the order from the time its order was served (aka some time in December) — to the serving of the DPC decision (some time in January).“This departure of the DPC from the EDPB decision seems to be unlawful,” noyb argues.

It also takes issue with the DPC apparently narrowing the scope of the EDPB decision — to limit it toprocessing for advertisement only.

“It seems that other aspects of the complaint were not dealt with by the DPC, which in itself may be illegal,” it suggests.

noyb also raises concerns over the level of financial sanction imposed by the Irish regulator — which the DPC was required by the EDPB to reassess and increase substantially in line with its binding decision that there was a breach of legal basis (and of the GDPR’s fairness principle), not only of transparency as the DPC initially decided.

The privacy group points out that the Irish regulator has opted to apply the smallest sanction in relation to “the actual unlawful processing of personal data of millions of EU users” — just €60M in the case of Facebook and €50M in the case of Instagram, which represents a tiny fraction of the revenues Meta has been able to generate over this period while unlawfully processing people’s data.

noyb goes on to warn that the DPC’s decisions may not end a case which has already racked up more than 4.5 years since the original “forced consent” complaints were filed back in May 2018 — as it argues the regulator’s findings don’t appear to fully deal with its complaints as the decisions focus on personalized ads and don’t cover issues like the use of personal data for improving the Facebook platform or for personalized content (which also require a valid legal basis under EU law).

Another issue noyb highlights is the DPC’s refusal to carry out additional investigations asked for by the EDPB — something the DPC is challenging as jurisdictional overreach and seeking to annul, as we reported earlier this month.

It also flags a further conflict which it says could lead it to appeal the decision — pointing out that under Austrian or German law (aka, the law that applies to noyb), the complaint defines the scope of the procedure — whereas it says the DPC believes that under Irish law it may limit the scope of a complaint, adding: “noyb may have to appeal the decision on these grounds.”

The DPC has been contacted for comment.

Major EU privacy decisions against Meta’s legal basis for ads raise fresh complaints by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

U.K. postal service Royal Mail has said it’s experiencing “severe service disruption” following an cyber incident.

In a statement published Wednesday, Royal Mail said it was unable to dispatch export items including letters and parcels to overseas destinations as a result of the cyberattack. It added that international parcels that had already been dispatched “may be subject to delays.”

“We have asked customers temporarily to stop submitting any export items into the network while we work hard to resolve the issue,” Royal Mail said. “Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this disruption and we will update customers as soon as we have more information.”

Further details, such as the nature of the incident and who was responsible, remain unclear, and Royal Mail has yet to respond to TechCrunch’s questions. The company added in its statement that it is working with unnamed external experts to investigate the incident and has alerted the relevant authorities.

A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Center told TechCrunch it was aware of the incident and is working with Royal Mail to “fully understand the impact.”

Royal Mail ships to 231 countries and territories worldwide. Royal Mail sent more than 150 million parcels overseas in the past year, according to the BBC.

News of the incident comes as Royal Mail workers are holding a series of strikes in the U.K. in an effort for higher pay and better working conditions. It also comes weeks after the British postal service experienced a data breach that exposed the information of customers to other users, as reported by Sky News.

Royal Mail warns of severe disruption after ‘cyber incident’ by Carly Page originally published on TechCrunch

Microsoft will introduce a new, lower-cost tier of Microsoft 365, its product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services, starting on January 30. Called Microsoft 365 Basic and priced at $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year, the plan will initially include 100 GB of storage, Outlook email, and access to support experts for help with Microsoft 365 and Windows 11.

Existing OneDrive 100 GB subscribers will be transitioned to Microsoft 365 Basic beginning January 30 as well, Microsoft says. And in the coming months, Microsoft 365 Basic plan members will get “advanced security features” like ransomware recovery and password-protected sharing links in OneDrive.

Importantly, Microsoft 365 Basic is not replacing the free Microsoft 365 tier. That’s here to stay along with the same benefits it offers today, including access to the web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, Clipchamp and more and 5 GB of cloud storage. Microsoft 365 Personal, meanwhile, will remain $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year.

Microsoft 365 Basic compares favorably in terms of pricing to rival Google Workspace, whose Individual plan starts at $9.99 per month for 1TB of storage, professional support and Google’s standard productivity software (e.g. Google Drive, Calendar, Meet and Gmail). It’s also cheaper than Zoho’s Standard Workplace plan, which costs $3 per user per month billed annually and tops out at 10GB of storage.

To coincide with the introduction of the new tier, Microsoft today announced the general availability of the Microsoft 365 app, which replaces the Microsoft Office app with a new design and new features. As previewed earlier this year during Microsoft’s Ignite conference, the Microsoft 365 app — now live on the web — provides quick access to apps including Word, Excel and PowerPoint in addition to file templates, “smart” recommendations, to-do list functionality and syncing across different devices.

The Microsoft 365 app will launch on Windows, Android and iOS later this month, Microsoft says.

Rounding out the raft of new apps and services, Microsoft 365 users will soon be able to view, manage and upgrade cloud storage across devices via a new “simplified view,” says the company. Starting February 1 from a Microsoft account, Windows settings or app settings, subscribers can mange and upgrade their cloud file and photo storage.

The investment in Microsoft 365 makes sense. It’s is a growing revenue item for Microsoft, which has bet much of its future on the cloud and, by extension, cloud-driven subscriptions. In its Q4 2022 earnings call, Microsoft reported that Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew 15% to 59.7 million, driving revenue in the company’s Office Consumer products and cloud services segment to $136 million — a 9% year-over-year increase.

In a potential niggle, legal trouble may be brewing over Microsoft 365 in the European Union, my colleague Natasha Lomas reports, where a recent assessment by a working group of German data protection regulators found that Microsoft still hasn’t able to resolve any of the compliance problems they’ve raised with it. The working group’s update could crank up the pressure on Microsoft 365 customers in Germany and elsewhere in the European Union to reassess usage of Microsoft’s software and/or seek out less compliance-challenged alternatives.

Microsoft 365 Basic launches with 100 GB of storage, Outlook and more for $1.99 per month by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”

TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie,

I’m currently on regular OPT. My employer will sponsor me in the H-1B lottery in March. Can you share any tips for presenting a strong H-1B case if I’m selected? If I’m not selected, then what?

— Proficient and Pragmatic

Dear Proficient,

Thank you for asking the two questions that I’m sure are on every first-time H-1B candidate’s mind. Even though the H-1B lottery isn’t until March, it’s important for companies and their immigrant employees to start getting things in order right now. With the tech layoffs, there is a chance of fewer registrations for the upcoming lottery, which could lead to higher chances of selection.

Tips for a strong H-1B petition

If you’re selected in the lottery, your company will be notified by March 31 and will have until June 30 to file your petition for the H-1B specialty occupation visa. As always, I suggest that employers work with their immigration attorneys to establish a strategy now.

If you are selected in the lottery, your company will need to craft a strong H-1B for you with its legal counsel. Crafting a strong H-1B petition begins with getting a Labor Condition Application (LCA) approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. An approved LCA is required for all H-1B petitions. The Labor Department typically decides on whether to certify an LCA within 10 business days.

For the LCA, your employer must promise to pay at least the prevailing wage based on your position and work location to you, and ensure that your employment conditions won’t negatively affect American workers. Employers don’t need to submit evidence to the Labor Department with the LCA, but they must post a copy of the H-1B notification, which can be done electronically, keep all supporting documents in a file, and make it available for public viewing.

For the H-1B specialty occupation visa, your employer will need to fill out Form I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker) and include evidence and supporting documents. Crafting a strong H-1B petition also requires the following:

Your employer must demonstrate that the “specialty occupation” you are offered requires a bachelor’s degree and show that you have the degree. If your position falls within the STEM category, proving the need for a bachelor’s degree is often easy. It’s more challenging for non-STEM positions and certain specific occupations, such as IT, programming, data analysis or other analyst jobs.
You will need to collect documents that show you have maintained your immigration status while here in the U.S., including all I-20s issued to date for students and any employment authorization document (EAD) cards.
Avoid mistakes and omissions by double-checking your forms and documents. Make sure the information contained in the LCA matches Form I-129, and everything that needs to be signed is signed.

Plenty of other options!

Dear Sophie: Any tips for presenting a strong H-1B case? What if I’m not selected? by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Remote payroll startup Deel has acquired fintech Capbase for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal, the companies have told TechCrunch exclusively.

As its name suggests, San Francisco-based Capbase claims it can update a company’s cap table in real time as it issues shares, signs contracts and raise money from investors. It then uses that data to build API integrations that can be used to set up bank accounts, payroll and business insurance. Greg Miaskiewicz and Stefan Nagey founded the company in 2018, and raised a total of about $6 million in venture capital from firms such as Better Tomorrow Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Village Global as well as a number of angel investors.

“We tried to make it simpler to start a company, raise money and issue equity,” CEO Miaskiewicz told TechCrunch in an interview. Capbase ran a private beta until April 2021, and saw its customer base grow “from 10 to more than 500 in less than 18 months,” he said, though declining to reveal hard revenue figures.

Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang started remote-first, San Francisco-based Deel in 2019 with the mission of allowing businesses to hire employees and contractors in other countries “in less than five minutes.” Deel also says that it gives companies the ability to pay teams in over 150 currencies with “just a click.” The company raised nearly $680 million in total funding, was last valued at $12 billion and boasted it had crossed the $100 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue) threshold in March of 2022. (The company declines to reveal current numbers saying only that it continues to grow its ARR month over month “at a very strong clip.”)

Over the years, Deel has evolved its model, adding more features and acquiring other startups to boost its offerings, including equity-related services to clients in a consultative capacity. For example, it advises them on how to manage their taxable events on Employer of Record employee and contractor equity, in addition to handling payroll on those events. With its acquisition of Capbase, Deel plans to pair those services with a new product dedicated to equity management and issuance.

In an interview, Bouaziz said that Deel’s customers have struggled around “where and how to start approaching equity grants,” with questions such as how to grant employees and contractors equity in countries where they don’t have entities and what they need to do to comply with local laws.

Interestingly, Capbase was one of Deel’s earliest customers and Bouaziz says he was always “appreciative” of Miaskiewicz’s thinking around compliance.

So, as questions continued to come up from customers, like how to grant equity to people in other countries, especially in light of different labor laws everywhere, Deel began to search for a solution. In fact, it was a problem it had to solve for itself, especially considering that the company provides “the same equity to people regardless of where they are.”

“We looked at U.S. compliance and realized it was a very, very hard thing to do,” Bouaziz told TechCrunch. “Equity is such an important part of companies, so enabling other companies to grant it across geographies and at scale felt like something we should tackle.”

Instead of “just doing it from scratch,” Deel opted to work with Capbase.

Put simply, in acquiring Capbase, Deel hopes to ease the complexities that come with setting up companies and growing them. It was drawn to the fact that Capbase works to help companies with incorporation and fundraising in their early days as well as with compliance filings and granting equity as they mature, according to Bouaziz.

“They offer technology and compliance expertise to help hundreds of businesses incorporate seamlessly in the U.S., set up bank accounts and boards, manage cap tables, and, of course, grant equity,” he added. “All of these things complement our efforts around helping companies expand more easily, all in one place, compliantly.”

Notably, Deel believes the addition of Capbase will help it “do more in the U.S. to support startups and help companies go global.” This will no doubt allow Deel to better compete with others in the space.

For example, last October, workforce management platform Rippling revealed a new globally payroll product that its CEO Parker Conrad wasn’t shy about admitting would directly compete with Deel. At that time, Conrad told TechCrunch the new offering would give Rippling’s U.S.-based clients a way to pay workers all over the world — whether they be full-time or contract — more “seamlessly.”

One company that Deel is not trying to compete against, though, is Carta.

“Capbase’s initial product is similar to Carta and Stripe Atlas,” Bouaziz said. “We’re not doubling down on that product. I think cap table management is important but a lot of companies have built a product around it and reinventing the wheel is not something we really like to do. Going into this market would be reinventing the wheel.”

“We really want to build a product solving global equity for the employer of record model for employees around the world,” he added. “We want to take that internal knowledge that was built in the U.S. and productize it globally.”

For Capbase, the offer to get acquired in an extremely challenging macro environment was more attractive than “continuing down the path of fundraising in a rocky economic climate,” admits Miaskiewicz.

The startup’s 20 employees are all joining Deel.

Miaskiewicz believes that with the two companies joining forces, Deel will emerge as an even stronger company.

“If you’re trying to sell services to startups or companies that will become the next big tech companies, you want to establish that relationship and offer them services as early in the lifecycle as possible because then you can build and offer them more and more services as they scale, so that you can monetize that relationship and build the customer lifetime value,” he told TechCrunch.

Meanwhile, Deel anticipates that it will have a “pretty solid working product” available to customers — which include companies such as Nike, Cloudflare, Shopify and Subway — by early to mid-February.

“Obviously with global compliance, we’ll be fine-tuning over time as the product gets more and more complicated and more and more tailored to the local jurisdictions and local laws,” Bouaziz said.

Equity management is clearly a hot area. On January 10, investment giant Fidelity announced that it had acquired Shoobx, a venture-backed fintech startup, for an undisclosed amount. Shoobx is a provider of automated equity management operations and financing software to private companies “at all growth stages,” up to and including an initial public offering. Services it offers include helping companies send offer letters, grant equity to new employees, manage their cap tables and get a 409A valuation report, among other things.

Deel enters equity management space with acquisition of Capbase by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

It may have been a weird feeling to watch Golden Globe Awards live on television this year. Last year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that hosts the ceremony, was criticized for lacking diversity, so NBC announced it wouldn’t broadcast the awards show and the event’s winners were live-tweeted instead. The HFPA claims it’s more diverse this time around, recently reporting that the total voting body is 51.8% “racially and ethnically diverse.”

Last night, the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards returned to the big screen.

From HBO’s “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria” to “House of the Dragon,” the combined HBO/HBO Max had a successful night with the most Golden Globe nominations and wins of any network. The company took home a total of four wins after being nominated for 14.

Meanwhile, Netflix managed to scoop up three wins, which included wins for Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” and “Ozark.” The streaming giant was nominated for 14.

Hulu’s “The Dropout” won Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, which was thanks to Amanda Seyfried’s interpretation of Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos CEO and founder who was just sentenced to 11 years in prison. Hulu had ten Golden Globe nominations.

“The Bear” and “Abbott Elementary” were also on the Golden Globes winner list. Both shows have Hulu as their streaming home. “Abbott Elementary,” the most nominated TV series, also streams on HBO Max.

Although Apple TV+ pulled six noms this year, “Black Bird” was the only show to win an award, with Paul Walter Hauser (who plays Larry Hall) taking the trophy for Supporting Actor in a TV Drama.

Disney also had six nominations this year, however, the media company had just one win, even though “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” were among the highest-grossing films at the box office. Angela Bassett from the “Black Panther” sequel won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture.

It’s important to note that the Golden Globes has been accused of being corrupt, with evidence of some HFPA members accepting gifts and bribes. It’s also been accused of heavily influencing Oscar nominations. A few celebrities didn’t even attend the award show this year, including Brendan Fraser and Tom Cruise. However, despite the controversies, the Golden Globes continues to be a hit, generating millions of dollars for Hollywood businesses.

HBO and HBO Max dominates Golden Globes with most wins by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

Hello and welcome back toEquity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week,Natasha chatted with Haje Kamps and Brian Heater about CES which took place last week over in the ever-exciting Las Vegas area. All of our fantastic CES coverage can be found on the site, but for the purposes of today’s show, we tried to keep it analytical, chatty and, at times, even a bit robotic. (You’ll see what I mean).

Here’s what we got into:

Post-CES feelings and why the show has stayed relevant after all these years
How expectations of the show compared to the reality, robot pillows and all
Who did and didn’t show up
Brian’s new suggestion for what the conference should be called
The energy of innovation on the showroom floor, from sustainability to big swings to over-engineered blenders
Batteries!
And finally, how the downturn and COVID-19 may have impacted the way startups are pitching themselves to the public. Selection bias, it’s a thing!

You can follow Haje through his work on the Daily Crunch, and Brian through his work on Actuator.

As always, you can catch up with us on Twitter @EquityPod.

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyandall the casts. TechCrunch also has agreat show on crypto, ashow that interviews founders, ashow that details how our stories come togetherand more!

Will what happened at CES, stay at CES? by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence will either vastly improve our lives or take away our jobs. For veteran venture investor Peter Wagner, it’s a little more nuanced than that.

We recently caught up with Wagner, who, along with fellow veteran investor Gaurav Garg, launched Wing Venture Capital. Combined, they have upward of 25 years of experience at storied investment firms: Wagner joined Accel as an associate in 1996 and stayed more than 14 years before leaving as a managing director to co-found Wing, and Garg spent 11 years as a partner at Sequoia Capital.

Since launching Wing in 2011, the two have been steadily growing their team and portfolio, backing such companies as Snowflake, Gong and Cohesity, among others, and “helping people do their best work,” as Wagner told us.

We initially reached out to discuss a list of enterprise angel investors that Wagner and his team recently assembled for the sake of the enterprise investing “community,” but we wound up talking for a bit about the firm’s growing focus on AI startups in particular and some of Wagner’s separate thoughts on the current state of the venture industry.

(Editor’s note: This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.)

You’re investing in the “AI-first technology stack.” What does that mean?

We’re big believers that AI is not replacing humans, but that humans working with AI will replace humans who don’t work with AI. That set of types of products really empowers customers to do more and to reach their full potential. … The whole notion of helping founders and their customers do their best work through the application of AI-first technologies, that’s really my mission statement. And that is a lot of what is driving enterprise technology these days, the question of: How do I develop and apply that set of AI-first technologies to drive business results?

Veteran enterprise VC Peter Wagner on the opportunities for AI startups by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

Tesla notified Texas regulators this week it plans to invest about $770 million into an expansion of its factory near Austin.

The automaker registered plans with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration. The Austin Business Journal and CNBC were the first to report on the filings.

The filings show Tesla intends to build new facilities at the site this year, including one for battery cell testing and another manufacture cathode and drive units. Tesla also plans to build a die shop at the factory site, according to the registration.

The expansion comes less than a year from the factory’s official opening. The Tesla factory in Austin officially opened in April 2022 with a “Cyber Rodeo,” a party attended by about 15,000 people.

Today, the factory is used to assemble some of its Model Y vehicles. Production at the factory was initially constrained by the availability of the more-efficient 4680 cells that comprise its new battery architecture. Panasonic has said it plans to resolve the bottleneck in early 2024 when it starts producing the advanced cells at the $4 billion battery factoryit’s building in Kansas.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said once the Texas factory achieves volume production, the company will focus on the long-delayed Cybertruck. Production of the Cybertruck, which has been postponed multiple times, is supposed to begin this summer.

Tesla plans $770M expansion at Texas factory by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch