OrbitFab secures National Science Foundation funding to propel its satellite refueling tech to space

On-orbit satellite refueling technology is closer than ever to a practical reality, which could help immensely with the cost and sustainability of orbital businesses. Startup OrbitFab, a 2019 TechCrunch Battlefield finalist, is one of the companies working to make orbital refueling a reality, and it just secured a new contract from the National Science Foundation’s early stage deep tech R&D initiative America’s Seed Fund to further its goals.

The contract is specifically for development of a solution that provides rendezvous and docking capabilities in space, managing the end-to-end process of connecting two spacecraft and transferring fuel from one to the other. OrbitFab unveiled its connector hardware for making this possible last October at Disrupt, which it now refers to as its Rapidly attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI). The RAFTI is designed as a replacement for existing valves used in satellites for fueling and draining propellant from spacecraft, but would seek to establish a new standard that provides easy interoperability both with ground fueling, and with in-space refueling (or fuel transfer from one satellite to another, depending on what’s needed).

Already, OrbitFab has managed to fly twice to the International Space Station (ISS), and last year it became the first ever private company to supply the orbital lab with water. It’s not resting on its laurels, and this new contract will help it prepare a technology demonstration of the docking process it’s RAFTI facilitates in its own test facilities this summer.

Longer-term, this is just phase one of a multi-par funding agreement with the NSF. Phase one includes $250,000 to make that first demo, and then ultimately that will lead to an inaugural trial of a fuel sale operation in space, which OrbitFab CMO Jeremy Schiel says should happen “within two years.”

“This will involve 2 satellites, our tanker, and a customer satellite, in a low LEO [low Earth orbit] docking, exchanging fuel, and decoupling, and repeating this process as many times as we can to demonstrate our capability,” he wrote via email.

There have been a number of technical projects and demonstrations around orbital refueling, and some of the largest companies in the industry are working on the challenge. But OrbitFab’s approach is aiming for simplicity, and ease of execution, along with a common standard that can be leveraged across a wide range of satellites large and small, from a range of companies. Already, OrbitFab says it’s working with a group of 30 different campaigns and organizations on making RAFTI a broadly adopted interface.

If successful, OrbitFab could underpin a future orbital commercial operating environment in which fuel isn’t nearly as much a concern when it comes to launch costs, with on-orbit roving gas stations addressing demand for spacecraft once they reach space, and paying a price for propellant that’s defrayed by common, bulk shipments instead of broken up piecemeal.

On-demand shuttle startup Via hits $2.25 billion valuation on latest funding round led by Exor

On-demand shuttle startup Via has hit a $2.25 billion valuation following a Series E funding round led by Exor, the Agnelli family holding company that owns stakes in PartnerRe, Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

The Series E funding round, which included other investors, totaled $400 million, according to a source familiar with the deal. Exor invested $200 million into Via as part of the round, both companies said in an announcement. Noam Ohana, who heads up Exor Seeds, the holding company’s early-stage investment arm, will join Via’s board.

New investors Macquarie Capital, Mori Building and Shell also participated in the round, as well as existing investors 83North, Broadscale Group, Ervington Investments, Hearst Ventures, Planven Ventures, Pitango and RiverPark Ventures.

Via, which employs about 700 people, plans to use most of these funds to expand its “partnerships,” the software services piece of its business. Via has two sides to its business. The company operates consumer-facing shuttles in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York. But the core of its business is really its underlying software platform, which it sells to cities and transportation authorities to deploy their own shuttles.

When the company first launched in 2012, there was little interest from cities in the software platform, according to co-founder and CEO Daniel Ramot. The company started by focusing on its consumer-facing shuttles. Over time, and using the massive amounts of data it collected through these services, Via improved its dynamic, on-demand routing algorithm, which uses real-time data to route shuttles to where they’re needed most.

Via landed its first city partnership with Austin in late 2017, after providing the platform to the transit authority for free. It was enough to allow Via to develop case studies and convince other cities to buy into the service. In 2019, the partnerships side of the business “took off,” Ramot said in a recent interview, adding that the company was signing on two to three cities a week before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, the Via platform is used by more than 100 partners, including cities such as Los Angeles and Cupertino, Calif., and Arriva Bus UK, a Deutsche Bahn company that uses it for a first and last-mile service connecting commuters to a high-speed train station in Kent, U.K.

Raising funds in a pandemic

Via managed to close the funding round during an inauspicious time for startups that have found it increasingly difficult to lock in capital due to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, a disease caused by the coronavirus, has upended markets, along with every industrial and business sector, from manufacturing and transportation to energy and real estate.

Via managed to raise a sizable fund, which just closed, despite the credit tightening and uncertainty. Ramot told TechCrunch that while he was worried the round might be delayed, he noted that Exor is a long-term and patient investor that shares the company’s “same vision of where transit is going.”

Even now, as nearly every category within transportation — including public transit, ride-hailing, shared micromobility and airlines — has seen ridership drop or dry up altogether, Ramot and Ohana see a promising future.

Ohana said that the market is starting to understand the limits of ride-hailing — hurdles such as poor unit economics and an uncertain path to profitability. “On the other hand, the size of the market for an on-demand dynamic shuttle service is large and underappreciated,” Ohana said. “When we look at public transit today, there is a significant opportunity for Via, which already has impressive experience working with municipal and public transit partners across the globe.”

That doesn’t mean Via is immune to the widespread tumult caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Via’s consumer business has been negatively affected as ridership has dropped due to the spreading disease.

However, there has been some promise with its partnerships business, Ramot said.

Existing partners, a list that includes transit authorities in Berlin, Germany, Ohio and Malta, have worked with Via to convert or adapt the software to meet new needs during the pandemic. A city might dedicate its shuttle service to transporting goods or essential personnel. For instance, Berlin converted its 120-shuttle fleet transport to an overnight service that provides free transit to healthcare workers traveling to and from work.

“There has been a real interest in emergency services,” Ramot said, adding he expects to see more demand for the software platform and the flexibility it provides as the pandemic unfolds.

Join the FirstMark Capital squad for a live Q&A on Zoom tomorrow at 9am PDT

Stuck at home?

JK! I know you are! You’re not alone.

FirstMark Capital partners Rick Heitzmann, Amish Jani, Matt Turck and Beth Ferreira are also working from home. But neither distance nor virus can truly keep us all apart.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce that tomorrow at 12pm EDT/9am PDT, we will be joined by these wonderful FirstMark partners for a live Zoom chat.

We’ll ask how they’re advising their portfolio companies during this challenging times, how Covid-19 has changed their investment thesis (if at all) and what trends are exciting to them. More importantly, guests of the Zoom will also be able to ask questions and have them answered live on the call.

FirstMark has an impressive portfolio that includes Shopify, Airbnb, InVision, Pinterest, DraftKings, Discord, and many, many more. The NYC-based firm is on its fourth early stage fund and second growth-stage fund, with $480 million between the pair. (TechCrunch covered FirstMark’s latest funds here.)

I’m amped to talk to Heitzmann, Jani, Turck and Ferreira and hope you’ll join us. Interested? Hit up this Zoom link at 12pm EDT/9am PDT to take part! (Please observe normal human manners: Wear clothes, don’t screenshare, generally be polite.)

We’ll publish a lightly edited audio recording and transcript to Extra Crunch on Thursday for folks who miss out! But for everyone who can make it, we’ll see you tomorrow at Noon Eastern. West Coast folks can dial in over breakfast.

How to value a startup in a downturn

The value of technology companies has fallen as the broader public markets have repriced themselves in light of COVID-19-related market and economic disruptions.

And as the public markets sort out the new value of a huge piece of global business, private companies are being shaken as well.

What happens in the public markets trickles into the private markets, so if we’re seeing the value of public tech companies fall, startups are going to take a hit. To understand that dynamic, we spoke with Mary D’Onofrio, an investor with Bessemer Venture Partners. She’s the right person to chat with about the links between private valuations and public share prices as she not only helps put capital into growing startups, she also helps run the Bessemer cloud index (now a partnership with Nasdaq, and trackable on a day-to-day basis).

As she’s versed on both sides of the public-private divide, we asked her how she values startups in normal market conditions and in more turbulent times like today. We also dug into how founders are reacting to the changing world that may no longer be as amenable to their business plans. Pulling from our conversation, D’Onofrio told TechCrunch that startups want to be valued like companies were a few months ago, while investors want to pay today’s market prices.

But enough introduction, let’s get to the conversation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity; thanks to Holden Page and Walter Thompson for help with the transcription.

TechCrunch: During our last conversation, we discussed how to value startups. You explained a method in which you consider the future value of cash flows. How do you value startups today versus how much you think they’ll be worth down the road?

Mary D’Onofrio: I think what’s important to know is that outside of a market disruption, which I think was the the nature of the question to begin with, cloud software tends to trade on revenue and revenue growth. Companies should fundamentally be valued on the present value of their future free cash flows. But I think with cloud software, in particular, there’s a prioritization of taking [market]share, and then applying a very long term healthy margin structure on a very massive revenue base once you get there, and generating cash then.

And so I think in bull markets, when capital is readily available, prioritizing growth makes a lot of sense because you want to capture as much share as you can. And then losses are also tolerable because the capital is available to fund that massive growth. And there are actual measurable metrics that validate that structure, with CLTV to CAC [customer lifetime value to customer acquisition costs] being one of them.

VR workplace training startup Strivr lands $30 million Series B

Virtual reality has been two years away from mainstream adoption for the past six years. In that time, huge companies have made big VR bets only to walk away, countless VR startups have faded or flared out and investment has slowed significantly.

Building an attractive VR product for large enterprises to train employees remotely has remained one of the few major areas of opportunity, one that has been largely dominated by Strivr, which just locked down new funding, bringing their total funding to $51 million.

The VR training startup has closed a $30 million Series B round led by Georgian Partners, a Canadian firm that hasn’t been very active in the AR/VR space. CEO Derek Belch says the company ended up pitching a few dozen firms in this raise, and that while the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive,” there were certainly some skeptics.

“Everyone knows that VR has been slower to adopt and tougher to anticipate,” Belch told TechCrunch.

While AR/VR startups seemed to be raising money left and right in 2016 when Strivr closed its seed round, the market is much sparser in 2020 after years of missed estimates and a relentless parade of shutdowns.

While consumer VR startups have almost unilaterally struggled to get off the ground in recent months, there has still been movement among enterprise offerings. Earlier this month, a competing VR training platform, Talespin, closed $15 million in funding. In late January, enterprise AR/VR teleconferencing app Spatial locked down $14 million. HaptX, which makes a high-end VR glove for enterprise use cases, nabbed $12 million in December.

Landing post-Series A funding has remained a tough challenge for VR enterprise startups, where players are often positioning themselves to be judged in relation to their VR peers rather than to a Salesforce, Box or Atlassian.

“Nobody can get beyond a pilot program,” Belch said. “Investors want to know how real this market is and where the target is.”

Strivr emerged from Belch’s research at Stanford in 2014 as a VR application made to help football players train off the field. Belch had previously been a kicker for Stanford’s football team, and his co-founder Jeremy Bailenson led the school’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, a leading research hub that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited while doing diligence on the Oculus deal.

As virtual reality gear was further commoditized and investment in the space grew hotter, Strivr soon pivoted from sports training toward workplace training, pitching their solution as a better way for companies to hand top-down instruction to employees. Their software offering is often a combination of interactive 360 videos and computer-generated scenarios that require more active participation from a trainee.

While other VR startups have pushed to integrate phone or tablet-based experiences, Belch says that he has pushed back on customer requests to move away from headset-only experiences toward phone-based 360-degree videos.

“Those are not our disruption, those are gimmicky and a cheap way to bring a new logo on,” Belch says.

Walmart is putting 17,000 Oculus Go headsets in its stores to help train employees in VR

The company’s customer base now includes FedEx, JetBlue, Verizon and BMW. Their biggest get was a deal with Walmart in 2017 that eventually grew into a company-wide rollout across all of their stores, a massive deal that Belch says has been a “blessing and a curse” due to the rollout’s scale.

“You have to be smart in terms of what you do that’s Walmart specific,” Belch told TechCrunch. “They’ll swallow you whole if you let them.”

Alongside the company’s funding news, the startup has announced that they’ve received a patent to use motion data to predict how effective users will be at the real-world task post-training. Strivr now has 22,000 VR headsets out in the wild, which Belch says have registered 1.6 million sessions. The hardware is all from Oculus.

Strivr is in the fortunate position of closing this deal ahead of the recent pandemic-related market uncertainty — a situation that has complicated their ability to meet with prospective customers and has raised issues with sanitation that Strivr says they have addressed. While Belch sees this Series B as a validation of the customer feedback he’s gotten, he also knows that the VR industry remains fraught with challenges.

“Thirty million doesn’t last very long if you’re stupid; we’re going to make sure we’re very smart about it,” Belch says.

Color is launching a high-capacity COVID-19 testing lab and will open-source its design and protocols

Genomics health technology startup Color is doing its part to address the global COVID-19 pandemic, and has detailed the steps it’s taking to support expansion of testing efforts in a new blog post and letter from CEO Othman Laraki on Tuesday. The efforts include development of a high-throughput lab that can process as many as 10,000 tests per day, with a turnaround time of within 24 hours for reporting results to physicians. In order to provide the most benefit possible from the effort of standing this lab up, Color will also make the design, protocols and specifics of this lab available open-source to anyone else looking to establish high-capacity lab testing.

Color’s lab is also already nearly ready to begin processing samples – it’s going live “in the coming week,” according to Laraki. The Color team worked in tandem with MIT’s Broad Institute, as well as Harvard and Weill Cornell Medicine to develop its process and testing techniques that can allow for higher bandwidth results output vs. standard, in-use methods.

The focus of Color’s efforts in making this happen have been on using automation wherever possible, and seeking techniques that source parts and components, including reagents, that can come from different supply chains. That’s actually a crucial ingredient to being able to ramp efforts at scale nationally and globally, since if everyone is using the same lab processing methods, you’re going to run up against a bottle neck pretty quickly in terms of supplies. Being able to process tens of thousands of tests per day is great on paper, but it means nothing if one ingredient you need to make that happen is also required by every other testing lab in the country.

Color has also made efforts to address COVID-19 response in two other key areas: testing for front-line and essential workers, and post-test follow-up and processing. To address the need for testing for those workers who continue to operate in public-facing roles despite the risks, Color has redirected its enterprise employee base to providing, in tandem with governments and employers, onsite clinical test administration, lab transportation and results reporting with patient physicians.

For its post-test workflow, Color is working to address the challenges reported by other clinicians and health officials around how difficult it is to be consistent and effective in following up on the results of tests, as well as next steps. So the company is opening up their own platform for doing so, which they’ve re-tooled in response to their experience to date, and making that available to any other COVID-19 testing labs for free use. These resources include test result reporting, guidelines and instructions for patients, follow-up questionnaires around contact tracing, and support for how to reach out to potentially exposed individuals tied to a patient who tests positive.

To date, Color says that its been able to operate at cost, in part backed by support by philanthropic public and private donations. The company is encouraging direct outreach via its covide-response@color.com email in case anyone thinks they can contribute to, or benefit from the project and the resources being made available.

Handmade Crafters Make Face Masks for Medical Professionals

The COVID-19 epidemic is disrupting the nation’s medical facilities and individuals who work there. Consequently, they are facing shortages in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). In recent weeks these protective gears have become scarce and in short supply.

As a result, health care workers are being forced to ration their N95 masks. These are the masks the Center for Disease Control (CDC) provides maximum protection form the disease. While those who don’t have access to N95 masks are resorting to surgical masks.

Making Face Masks

In a bid to curb the shortage of these protective gear and stifle the infection rates, businesses and individuals are working towards bringing about homegrown solutions.

Among these are masks. And the nation needs an estimated 3.5 billion masks to cope with the outbreak this year alone. In response, apparel companies and fashion designers are working towards addressing the shortfall. They are doing so by retooling their production line to produce these essential protective gears.

Do It Yourself Gets in Vogue

The national shortage of N95 masks and depleting stock of surgical masks has induced creative solutions. Designers are also contributing towards the cause by making masks and experimenting with designs. One designer Michael Costello has created a washable face mask in a black, cotton-nylon stretch fabric. And has started working with manufacturers to make the masks available.

Crafters too have joined by setting up communities on social media like Facebook to create a community as well as provide DIY videos on how to produce PEPs such as Crafters Against COVID-19 Seattle. The call to arms seems to be helping reinvigorate American crafters and bringing back badly needed skills to communities.

For those who have a sewing machine and have forgotten, there are tutorials on how to make masks.

Something Vintage rentals have collected donated money and fabric, to make masks for medical professionals and hospitals. These events and rental company not only supply the masks but also coordinates volunteers to deliver the masks to hospitals. For those who want to make their own masks they offer free fabrics and tutorials. They are encouraging customers who can make face masks at home to donate to hospitals as well.

How are Businesses Reacting

As stocks of PEPs turn scarce a number of companies and retailers have shifted their operation. The goal is to help manufacture masks, gowns and other protective gear. Others are working with small business partners by producing masks and gowns to revitalizing US producers and suppliers. Gap and others like it have announced they will pivot their operations to produce much needed masks, scrubs, and gowns for healthcare professionals on the front lines.

Equally, there are many small businesses who are retooling their production lines to meet the growing demand for PEPs. Hatch Exhibits, a colorful displays and pop-up exhibition booths maker whose clients includes YouTube, Under Armour and Google is one of them. With cancellations on events, owner Chris McCormick looked inwards to look for solutions.

By designing and producing medical gowns and masks with the same type of materials and techniques they used for their products, he found out the company can contribute to the nation’s COVID response. Hatch Exhibits has collected donations to buy supplies for the masks and gowns to be donated to medical centers.

Hedley & Bennett aprons manufacturer, has developed the Wake Up & Fight Mask. This washable, reusable cotton mask is going to be available under the company’s ‘Buy 1, Give 1’ plan.

In the same manner Fanatics CEO, Michael Rubin has converted a factory that makes jerseys into one that makes masks and gowns for health workers. Part of the production will be for donations to medical facilities and first responders.

With the global supply chain challenged by the outbreak, homegrown solutions like these might help bring back jobs into the economy. As craftsmen are the soul of all small businesses providing them with much-needed support not only allows them to stay in business but also contributes to the fight against COVID-19.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "Handmade Crafters Make Face Masks for Medical Professionals" was first published on Small Business Trends

Cue Health awarded $13 million government contract to develop portable, point-of-care COVID-19 test

Biotech startup Cue Health has secured a $13 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’ Biomedical Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which will be used to speed the development and testing of a handheld molecular test that can detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Cue, which broke cover in 2014 with plans for a connected lab in a box for at-home testing and a $7.5 million funding round, is developing a product that pairs cartridge-like test kits with a compact and connected mini lab device that can transmit results to a personalized app-based health dashboard.

The startup received a previous $30 million contract from BARDA in 2018, which was earmarked for the development and validation of an over-the-counter diagnostic test for influenza and multiplex respiratory pathogens. This pre-existing relationship and work will be useful in helping jump-start the effort on developing COVID-19 testing, the company says.

“We have worked with the BARDA team for the past two years developing and testing a 20-minute, molecular influenza test designed for home and point-of-care use,” said Cue Health CEO Ayub Khattak in a statement. “Our connected platform could serve as a critical tool in identifying the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

The company also raised a $45 million Series B funding round the same year, which was designed to help it fund the first set of FDA clinical products used to validate its first products aimed at providing consumer diagnostics.

Cue’s proposed test solution would provide results in under 25 minutes, using samples collected via nasal swab, with all testing done at point-of-care rather than requiring any round-trip shipping.

It’s far from the only rapid, point-of-care test either in development, in testing or already approved for use under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization, and there’s no specific timeline for this to become available. But the fact remains that the current testing gap needs to be addressed essentially by as many solutions as can be proven effective and viable – and this work should be useful long-term in addressing similar global crises and pandemics in future.

Startup group works to get flat-packed protective boxes to frontline COVID-19 medical workers

There are a number of initiatives by startup companies and entrepreneurs looking to support the healthcare response to COVID-19, and one that’s addressing a need in the realm of personal protective equipment is the COVID Box project launched by a group of volunteers in Toronto that includes startup founders and employees, as well as doctors and healthcare professionals.

The COVID-19 intubation box that this group is working to produce is a polycarbonate box that can be flat-packed for easy shipping, and assembled quickly on the receiving end, for use in healthcare facilities while medical personnel intubate a patient. Intubation is the process of inserting a plastic tube into a patient’s trachea to help keep their airway open, and is specifically necessary when someone needs to be put on a ventilator – a common outcome for patients severely affected by COVID-19.

The intubation box provides healthcare workers with an additional layer of protection, while the transparent plastic used means they can still perform the procedure. The design is based on an open-sourced original plan that was released by Dr. Hsien Yung Lai, a medical practitioner in Taiwan, specifically to address the global challenge of intubating COVID-19 patients worldwide while maintaining care worker safety as much as is possible.

The COVID Box project provides instructions on how to make your own box with the requisite materials, but it is hoping to secure more mass production capacity to deliver them at scale, starting with Canadian hospitals and hopefully expanding to address healthcare needs around the world, too. Project co-founder Jonathan Norris (co-founder and CTO of Taplytics) said the team has been working for a week on prototyping and production.

“Early last week Taplytics Head of Finance, Gloria Cheung, came to us letting us know that a group of Doctors were looking to get a simple plastic box made to protect Medical Providers while intubating patients who have COVID-19,” he said via message. “We were able to connect the doctors with a group of engineers from Taplytics and folks I know from mentoring in the FIRST Robotics program, to design and build multiple prototypes of a flat-packable box designed for this use. We worked with Eventscape to quickly built prototypes and got the final version approved for use in the Trillium Health Network yesterday.”

The group is looking for donations to help scale its efforts, as well as manufacturing partners that can help – especially those who have access to CNC router hardware, which is essentially the only equipment needed to put these out, as well as anyone who can supply 1/4″ polycarbonate sheets.

Xage adds full-stack data protection to blockchain security platform

Xage, a startup that has been taking an unusual path to secure legacy companies like oil and gas and utilities with help from the blockchain, announced a new data protection service today.

Xage CEO Duncan Greatwood, says that up until this point, the company has concentrated on protecting customers at the machine layer, but today’s announcement involves protecting data as it travels between parties, which is more of a classic blockchain security scenario.

“We are moving beyond the protection of machines with greater focus on the protection of data. And this announcement around Dynamic Data Security that we’re delivering today is really a data protection layer that spans multiple dimensions. So it spans from the physical machine layer right up to business transaction,” Greatwood explained.

He says that what separates his company from competitors is the ability to have that protection up and down the stack. “We can guarantee the authenticity, integrity and the confidentiality of data, as it’s produced at the machine, and we can maintain that all the way to [delivery to the various parties],” he said.

Greatwood says that this solution is designed to help protect data, even in highly complex data sharing scenarios, using the blockchain as the trust mechanism. Imagine a supply chain scenario in which the parties are sharing data, but each participant only needs to see the piece of data they need to complete their part of the transaction and no more. To do this, Xage has the concept of security fabric, which acts as a layer of protection across the platform.

“What Xage is doing is to use this kind of security outsource approach we bring to authenticity, integrity and confidentiality, and then using the fabric to replicate all of that security metadata across the extent of the fabric, which may very well cover multiple locations and multiple participants,” he said.

This approach enables customers to have confidence in the providence and integrity of the data they are seeing. “We’re able to allow all of the participants to define a set of security policies that gives them control of their own data, but it also allows them to share very flexibly with the rest of the participants in the ecosystem, and to have confidence in that data, up to and including the point where they’ll pay each other money, based on the integrity of the data.”

The new solution is available today. It has been in testing with three beta customers, which included an oil and gas customer, a utility and a smart city scenario.

Xage was founded in 2016 and has raised just over $16 million, according to PitchBook data.

Substack offers $100K in grants for independent writers

Substack is taking several steps to support the writers and publications using its newsletter platform.

After all, just as writers and newsrooms are starting to build real businesses on Substack, the COVID-19 pandemic is dealing a huge financial blow to the media industry.

In response, the startup says it will donate $100,000 in grants — which will range from $500 to $5,000 in cash, “no strings attached” — to independent writers who are experiencing financial hardship. Applications open today and will close next week, on April 7.

The startup also says it will waive its 10 percent fee for publications if they donate their earnings to the effort against COVID-19 (that could mean donating to nonprofits, or to businesses that are threatened by the pandemic). The initial waiver is for one month, but it could be extended for up to three months.

Facebook commits $100M to support local news orgs hit by COVID-19 crisis

Lastly, Substack publications will soon be able to customize their subscription pages, so that readers do more to support their favorite writers. For example, a publication could add a “super supporters” option that allows subscribers to pay even more than an annual subscription price.

In a blog post, the company said:

Unfortunately, we … know that writers and creatives are among the hardest hit by the economic downturn and are experiencing decreasing job opportunities, canceled projects, and pay cuts. Yet while advertising budgets get slashed, readers are more eager than ever to directly support the creators they care about because they believe, like we do, that journalism and the arts are more necessary than ever in times of crisis.

Venture capital isn’t escaping the downward spiral of the global economy

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

This morning we’re looking at what venture capitalists got up to in the first quarter of the year and how they are really responding to the current global crisis.

It’s easy to find mixed signals on Twitter, with some VCs noting that they have slowed their investing cadence or tightened criteria as the markets shed value. Others claim to be as active as before. Founders are reporting new, higher standards that private capital deals now appear to require. TechCrunch compiled a number of reports from entrepreneurs which described an either slowed, more conservative or utterly frozen venture capital scene.

It seems very likely, then, that the United States’ venture capital results for Q1 will be somewhat weak. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, may show up more acutely in Q2 2020. Why? Because venture data is famously — and annoyingly — laggy. Rounds are announced weeks or months after they are completed, and the timing of their announcements is impacted by news cycles.

So what we see in Q1 2020 venture data will contain deals that took place in the latter days of 2019; Q2 2020 data, in contrast, will feature mostly 2020 deals and will include a reporting period in which a lot of later Q1 deals would have been completed. This does not mean that there’s no use in looking at Q1 results — we’re looking for early signals, not complete answers in the data.

So let’s dig up what information we can on our own, mix in some data from other reports and see what the tea leaves are saying about Q1 venture results so far.

Dining and takeout startup Allset raises $8.25M as it adapts to life under lockdown

Even though this might seem to be the absolute worst time to try to round up funding for a restaurant-related startup, Allset is announcing that it’s raised an $8.25 million Series B.

It was not, to be clear, an easy process. CEO Stas Matviyenko (who founded the company with COO Anna Polishchuk) admitted that when he set out to fundraise, the goal was actually $12 million. And at one point, it looked like he might even raise more than that — but as he finalized the round in the week before widespread social distancing measures started to take effect around the United States (effectively ending dine-in options in some cities), he said, “A few investors just disappeared.”

Still, Matviyenko said he feels “lucky” to have closed out the round at all. And he pointed to signs that consumers and restaurants are still turning to Allset during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company started out with a focus on delivering a quick dining experience in restaurants, allowing diners to make a reservation, order ahead and then pay directly through the Allset app. Over time, Matviyenko said, the app also began to offer personalized, healthy recommendations at each restaurant.

At the same time, Allset has added takeout options — and most recently, a feature that allows restaurants to offer contactless takeout, akin to the contactless option offered by many restaurant delivery apps. In fact, Allset is waiving its 12 percent commission fee for restaurants offering this option. (It’s also been promoting usage by offering a daily $4 discount for takeout orders.)

Image Credits: Allset

And while Matviyenko said that orders dropped by around 60 percent as social distancing measures went into place, they’ve apparently they’ve bounced back by 10 percent as Allset signed up new partners — usually in more residential neighborhoods, away from the office-heavy areas where the companies had previously focused. Matviyenko said the startup has added more than 200 new restaurants in the past couple weeks.

He also emphasized the distinction between Allset and the various delivery apps. He didn’t rule out adding a delivery option in the future, but since that require a serious investment in logistics, he’d likely to do it by partnering with an existing delivery company. Conversely, he suggested that for most delivery apps, takeout is usually an afterthought (assuming they support it at all), while Allset is trying to offer “the best [takeout] experience” possible.

The new round brings Allset’s total funding to $16.6 million. It was led by EBRD (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Greycroft, SMRK VC Fund and Inovo Venture Partners.

“The Allset team is building a great product and their effective execution yields strong unit economics with sustainable growth,” said EBRD’s Maria Barsuk in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with them in their next phase, as well as proud to support their efforts in serving local businesses and customers during this unprecedented time for the restaurant industry.”

Axonius nabs $58M for its cybersecurity-focused network asset management platform

As companies get to grips with a wider (and, lately, more enforced) model of remote working, a startup that provides a platform to help track and manage all the devices that are accessing networked services — an essential component of cybersecurity policy — has raised a large round of growth funding. Axonius, a New York-based company that lets organizations manage and track the range of computing-based assets that are connecting to their networks — and then plug that data into some 100 different cybersecurity tools to analyse it — has picked up a Series C of $58 million, money it will use to continue investing in its technology (its R&D offices are in Tel Aviv, Israel) and expanding its business overall.

The round is being led by prolific enterprise investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, with previous backers OpenView, Bessemer Venture Partners, YL Ventures, Vertex, and WTI also participating in the round.

Dean Sysman, CEO and Co-Founder at Axonius, said in an interview that the company is not disclosing its valuation, but for some context, the company has now raised $95 million, and PitchBook noted that in its last round, a $20 million Series B in August 2019, it had a post-money valuation of $110 million.

The company has had a huge boost in business in the last year, however — especially right now, not a surprise for a company that helps enable secure remote working, at a time when many businesses have gone remote in an effort to follow government policies encouraging social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. As of this month, Axonius has seen customer growth increase 910% compared to a year ago.

Sysman said that this round had been in progress for some time ahead of the announcement being made, but the final stages of closing it were all done remotely last week, which has become something of a new normal in venture deals at the moment.

“We’ve all been staying at home for the last few weeks,” he said in an interview. “The crisis is not helping with deals. It’s making everything more complex for sure. But specifically for us there wasn’t a major difference in the process.”

Sysman said that he first thought of the idea for Axonius when at a previous organization — his experience includes several years with the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as time at a startup called Integrity Project, acquired by Mellanox — where he realised the organization itself, and all of its customers, never actually knew how many devices accessed their network, which is a crucial first step in being able to secure any network.

“Every CIO I met I would ask, do you know how many devices you have on your network? And the answer was either ‘I don’t know,’ or big range, which is just another way of saying, ‘I don’t know,'” Sysman said. “It’s not because they’re not doing their jobs but because it’s just a tough problem.”

Part of the reason, he added, is because IP addresses are not precise enough, and de-duplicating and correlating numbers is a gargantuan task, especially in the current climate of people using not just a multitude of work-provided devices, but a number of their own.

That was what prompted Sysman and his cofounders Ofri Shur and Avidor Bartov to build the algorithms that formed the basis of what Axonius is today. It’s not based on behavioural data as some cybersecurity systems are, but something that Sysman describes as “a deterministic algorithm that knows and builds a unique set of identifiers that can be based on anything, including timestamp, or cloud information. We try to use every piece of data we can.”

The resulting information becomes a very valuable asset in itself that can then be used across a number of other pieces of security software to search for inconsistencies in use (bringing in the behavioural aspect of cybersecurity) or other indicators of malicious activity — specifically following the company’s motto, “Know Your Assets, Identify Gaps, and Automate Security Policy Enforcement” — even as data itself may seem a little pedestrian on its own.

“We like to call ourselves the Toyota Camry of cybersecurity,” Sysman said. “It’s nothing exotic in a world of cutting-edge AI and advanced tech. However it’s a fundamental thing that people are struggling with, and it is what everyone needs. Just like the Camry.”

For now, Axonius is following the route of providing a platform that can interconnect with a number of other security products — currently numbering around 100 — rather than building those tools itself, or acquiring them to bring them in house. That could be one option for how potentially it might evolve over time, however.

For now, the idea of being agnostic to those specific tools and providing a platform just to identify and manage assets is a formula that has already seen a lot of traction with customers — which include companies like Schneider Electric, the New York Times, and Landmark Medical, among others — as well as investors.

“Any enterprise CISO’s top priority, with unwavering consistency, is asset discovery and management. You can’t protect a device if you don’t know it exists.” said Arsham Menarzadeh, general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, in a statement. “Axonius integrates into any security and management product to show customers their full asset landscape and automate policy enforcement. Their integrated approach and remediation capabilities position them to become the operating system and single source of truth for security and IT teams. We’re excited to play a part in helping them scale.”

25 Tips on How to Stay in Touch with Customers Through the Coronavirus Pandemic

Businesses around the country are struggling to respond to the effects of COVID-19. Whether your operation has closed or you’re just struggling to stay relevant in the time of social distancing, communicating with customers is key. But do you know how to stay in touch with customers?

How to Stay in Touch With Customers

In all likelihood, you may need to reach out to customers in multiple ways to really get important messages across. Here are 25 tips on how to stay in touch with customers you might consider.

Send Email Updates

Probably the easiest and most direct way for many companies to stay in touch is by email. Most small businesses already have an email list where they send newsletters or updates about sales or new products. This can be a valuable way to let customers know any changes your business is making right now due to COVID-19 or any specials or updates that may be relevant to them.

Send Text Messages

If you have a small client list and want to keep everyone up to date personally, a quick text is an easy and non-invasive way to share short bursts of information. You can either reach out to people individually or send a text blast if you have customers who have signed up for text updates.

Make Phone Calls

If your business has a few important clients that you really focus on, you may want to reach out to them personally by phone. Make sure they know about any changes to your business and answer questions they may have.

Start a Video Chat

Video chat is another option that’s perfect for businesses with clients they work with regularly. This is ideal for communicating with those who you may otherwise meet with face-to-face or in instances where you may need to share visuals.

Use Chat Apps

If you need to provide virtual customer support to your customers in real time, chat apps like Facebook and WhatsApp can be very valuable. You can easily share the link to your chat profile so people can reach out to you when they have questions. Or you can send out individual messages if you have relevant updates.

Host Livestreams

Another real time option for communicating with customers, hosting a livestream allows you to broadcast video messages and interact with viewers. You might host a Q&A session, simple announcement, or some kind of demonstration to help customers during this time.

Post on Social Media

There’s a good chance your company has at least one social media account that you update regularly. This is the perfect way to not only share updates with customers but also to engage with them. Find out what they want from you during this time and build community around this shared experience.

Send Direct Mail

For local businesses or those that communicate with customers mainly offline, direct mail is still an option. Design a small flyer or write a letter that shares what your customers need to know.

Send Notes with Online or Delivery Orders

If your business ships or delivers products, use that as an opportunity to communicate. Share a handwritten or personally typed note letting them know how much you appreciate their business and include any other details they may need to know.

Create Video Content

Video can be an incredibly powerful tool for sharing complex thoughts or evoking an emotional response. There are tons of different ways you can use this tactic. You might share an honest take about what’s going on with your company on YouTube or go a more lighthearted route by sharing humorous content on TikTok.

Post in Online Forums

If there are any online forums that are relevant to your industry, posting or responding to others’ posts can help you stay connected. Just make sure to be responsive and don’t just spam people with your own updates.

Comment on Online Posts

Social media, blogging, and forum posting are two-way streets. You don’t need to create your own posts to communicate with customers. If you see other posts online that may be relevant, leave a comment.

Update Neighborhood Groups

For hyper local businesses, you may be able to reach customers in your immediate area through apps or groups like Nextdoor or your local neighborhood association’s website. This may be helpful for businesses like local restaurants that are offering delivery just within a specific radius.

Publish Blog Posts

If your website has a blog section, a simple blog post here and there can go a long way toward keeping your customers updated. This gives you a space to share long form messages, in case your company has any information to share that doesn’t fit into a tweet or Facebook post.

Start a Podcast

For those who are interested in sharing audio content with customers, a podcast could be the perfect solution. If you don’t already have one, this period where you have extra downtime may be the ideal time to get started. Or you could join another podcast as a guest and then share that episode with your online followers.

Add Live Chat to Your Website

If your business needs to answer questions or provide support to customers right on your website, a live chat feature may be the perfect solution. You can communicate back and forth without forcing your customers to ever leave your site.

Update Your Google Listing

Google is often one of the first places people go when looking for information about businesses. By updating your Google My Business Listing, you’re communicating the information that may be most relevant to your customers.

Respond to Online Reviews

Businesses should respond to online reviews on platforms like Yelp and Google regularly anyway. But since many entrepreneurs now have more time on their hands, it’s the perfect time to catch up. Thank people for sharing their thoughts and encourage even more people to do so.

Add a New Section to Your Website

When people visit your website, they’re looking for up-to-date information about your company. If things like your hours, shipping times, or availability has changed, add a short section at the top of your site so people will clearly see those changes.

Host Virtual Events

For businesses that normally host in-person events, consider hosting an online event instead. You might make a Facebook group, start a mass Zoom call, or maybe even host a Twitter chat to get everyone talking and interacting.

Work with Online Influencers

If you want to cast a wide net and communicate with lots of potential customers in a particular industry or interest area, consider influencer marketing as a communication method. You can have people with a significant following broadcast a message to their network instead of just relying on your own contacts.

Host Webinars

Webinars are helpful for teaching new concepts or exploring complicated subjects. If you’d normally meet with groups of clients or host workshops, this is a perfect way to reach a large group of customers at once.

Offer Your Expertise to Other Outlets

If you have some insights that may be valuable to people during this time but don’t want to just rely on your own website or blog, share it with others. You can reach out to local press outlets or offer to guest blog for others in your industry.

Take Out Ads

If you have something really important to share, purchase ad space to make sure it gets seen. This can vary widely, from online ads on specific sites to ads in local print publications.

Provide Something of Value

Actions speak louder than words, especially during a time like this. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do to really stay top of mind with customers is to provide them with something they really need or want during this time. This will look different for every business, and may not be possible for some. But for example, a carryout restaurant might offer free delivery to medical workers and first responders. Or an online business that sells virtual courses could make certain content free so people can learn a new skill while they’re sheltering in place. It may not make financial sense in the short term, but people may remember the gesture later on when they can afford to buy additional products or services.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "25 Tips on How to Stay in Touch with Customers Through the Coronavirus Pandemic" was first published on Small Business Trends

Leading VCs discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the world of digital health

In December 2019, Extra Crunch spoke to a group of investors leading the charge in health tech to discuss where they saw the most opportunity in the space leading into 2020.

At the time, respondents highlighted startups in digital therapeutics, telehealth and mental health that were improving medical practitioner efficiency or streamlining the distribution of care, amongst a variety of other digital health markets that were garnering the most attention.

Where top VCs are investing in digital health

In the months since, the COVID-19 crisis has debilitated national healthcare systems and the global economy. Weaknesses in healthcare systems have become clearer than ever, while startups and capital providers have struggled to operate while wide swaths of the market effectively shut down.

Given significant volatility and the rapid changes seen in the worlds of healthcare, venture and startups broadly, we wanted to understand which inefficiencies might have been brought to light, what new opportunities might exist for founders looking to reduce friction in healthcare systems, how digital health startups have been impacted and how health tech investing as a whole has changed.

We asked several of the VCs who participated in our last digital health survey to update us on how COVID-19 is impacting digital health startups and broader healthcare systems around the world:

• Annie Case, Kleiner Perkins
• Kristin Baker Spohn, CRV
• Deena Shakir, Lux Capital
• Jennifer Hartt, Ben Franklin Technology Partners
• John Prendergass, Ben Franklin Technology Partners
• Bill Liao, SOSV

Annie Case, Kleiner Perkins

Our current unprecedented global crisis has put a spotlight on digital health. In the last few weeks alone, we have seen what feels like a decade’s worth of societal and regulatory changes that require digital health companies to step up and embrace new challenges and opportunities.

How Franchise Managers Can Best Differentiate While Conforming to Franchise Standards

It does’t matter if you run a fast food restaurant or a hardware store. A franchise owner gets the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship. But this happens without the higher risk levels generally experienced in traditional startups.

However, running a franchise gives several advantages. For example, you get less room for innovation than in a startup. The brand has an image that it needs to maintain, and that means that you won’t have the ability to make decisions regarding things like the product lineup, signage, décor or uniforms.

But it’s still possible to differentiate your location without jeopardizing your commitments to the franchisor brand. By improving your management skills and fine-tuning your approach to your local market, you can cultivate the sense that your business has something special to offer, while still delivering the standardized experiences that attracts people to do business with franchises.

3 Local Franchise Marketing Tactics

It’s a tricky balance. Here’s how you can pull it off.

Service Comes First

Most franchises live and die based on their ability to provide quality customer service. In fact, research from Gartner reveals that 64 percent of shoppers place greater value on the customer experience than the price they pay. This is especially pertinent for franchise owners, who often rely al-most entirely on in-store purchases and pickups – and who might not even have the option to differentiate with price points. As a result, creating a positive company culture that puts the customer experience first an absolute must.

A key part of this is delivering on the expectations customers have come to associate with your franchise. As Seth Lederman, founder and CEO of Let’s Franchise, explains, “If you walk into any of the 30,000 Subways or McDonald’s around the world, you’re guaranteed your meal will be the same (or nearly) no matter where you are. That’s the franchise proposition of uniformity and replicability. Customers know this and seek out the reliability and familiarity of their favorite brands, which have been established over years or decades.”

You don’t want to deviate from these expectations, but you can – and should – differentiate your franchise by training employees on how to engage with customers. From responding respectfully to an upset patron to having the know-how to address questions, these employee interactions are often key to creating a positive impression with your target audience.

Make sure your employees are well versed in the franchise’s product lineup and any brand guide-lines for customer interactions. You may not have much room to alter your products and services, but you will play a direct role in how good of a job your employees do at addressing the needs of your customers.

Get Involved in the Community

Your local community is what will ultimately make or break your business. As such, the best way to gain the goodwill of your community (as well as attention in the press) is to get involved.

One example of how a franchise’s community involvement can make a difference is the Ace Hardware franchise located in Maricopa, Arizona. In 2019, the franchise won the city’s Business of the Year award for the third year in the row, as well as a Retailer of the Year award for its legislative district.

A big reason for these awards was its community involvement. According to Maricopa Monitor, the local franchise collects monetary donations for the Phoenix Children’s hospital and provides materials to the hospital to make holiday wreaths, while also hosting Girl Scout cookie sales, veteran’s events and other community activities. The franchise even sponsors a youth baseball team.

Such outreach efforts spur additional engagement between the franchise employees and the community. It gets the brand’s name out in public on a consistent basis and generates goodwill with local customers.

Enhance National Campaigns with Local Franchise Marketing Efforts

Franchisors play a significant role in managing the marketing efforts for their franchisees. The U.S. Small Business Administration explains most franchisees pay ongoing monthly marketing fees to the franchise. And franchises typically base this off your monthly revenue. And your payment for the nationwide campaigns benefits all franchisees.

This helps alleviate some of a franchise’s marketing burden. But this doesn’t mean franchise owners get off the hook. Grow your presence. You must enhance these national-level efforts with your own localized marketing. Get involved with community events and sponsorships. A strong social media presence remains the place franchisees have the greatest autonomy.

Most franchises encourage individual locations to manage their own social media profiles. But lay down rules regarding the type and tone of the content. Carefully review these rules. Make sure you don’t say or post anything that would damage the brand’s reputation. Or you jeopardize your status as a franchised location. Keep posts relevant to your business and the local community.

Caitlin Bagley notes in Digital Examiner, “A steady flow of ‘corporate’ content makes it easier to update local Facebook pages regularly, while still allowing time for crafting posts that are tailored to each location’s footprint and following. Create events and promotions specific to the foot-print, associated with the local franchise’s Facebook page, to increase awareness with local clientele. Take advantage of direct access to engage with your location’s following.”

Building a Successful Franchise

Ensure your day to day operations run smoothly. This remains most important. But this makes up only one part of your job as a franchise owner. Use these and other methods to help your location stand out in your community. Thus you differentiate yourself and gain a loyal customer base.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "How Franchise Managers Can Best Differentiate While Conforming to Franchise Standards" was first published on Small Business Trends

Monzo CEO won’t take salary for 12 months after limited number of staff offered voluntary furlough

Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank with over 4 million account holders, is taking a number of precautionary steps to help see it through the current coronavirus downturn, including voluntary furloughs and its CEO forgoing a salary, TechCrunch understands.

In an internal company-wide memo issued by co-founder and CEO Tom Blomfield, he tells the bank’s over 1,500 staff that he won’t be taking a salary for the next twelve months, and that the senior management team and board have volunteered to take a 25% cut in salary, as have other “Monzonaughts” within the company.

In addition, a limited number of Monzo’s U.K. employees are being offered voluntary furloughing for two months, as part of the scheme rolled out by the U.K. government to protect jobs during the coronavirus lockdown, which is already impacting many companies — not just Monzo — including several other fintechs I know of. Furlough ensures that employees still get paid even when work has decreased and that when things hopefully return to normal there is a job to come back to.

Although well capitalised, like other banks and fintechs, Monzo has seen customer card spend reduce at home and (of course) abroad, meaning it is seeing less revenue from interchange fees. New account signups have also slowed, as has customer support requests. It therefore makes sense to utilise the furlough scheme to help protect jobs in the future when demand picks up again. By making it voluntary, it also means staff with kids to home school or loved ones to take care of, can use the option to hopefully make their lives easier for the time being.

Specifically, I understand Monzo is accepting up to 175 furlough applications in customer support, and up to 120 applications from other parts of the business.

Meanwhile, it’s not clear if other U.K. challenger banks are also using the government’s furlough scheme. I’ve asked Starling and Revolut, for example, but have yet to hear back. As already mentioned, the scheme is available to U.K. companies right across the board and several startups, including fintechs, have already applied furloughing as a pre-cautionary measure.

Lastly, it should be stressed that none of the above should impact customers at Monzo, which, as a digital bank, is pretty well-positioned to operate during lockdown and with all staff already working from home. It is also a fully licensed bank, with customer deposits up to £85,000 protected as part of the U.K. government’s deposit protection scheme.

The Best Alternative to WordPress’ Traditional CMS in 2020

 

Headless CMS (content management system) in recent times has come to trump the traditional CMS when juxtaposed as content management systems. The headless CMS has become the best content management system built from scratch as a repository for content.

Traditional CMS is now too archaic to catch up with the advanced mobile sites, digital displays, applications, conversational interfaces, and the rest of such technology.

Headless CMS vs Traditional CMS

This content management system earned the name headless for both literal and practical reasons. We call the head of a website the frontend. So take off the frontend. This leaves the website “headless.” This became the origin of the title headless CMS. So it is safe to define the headless CMS as a backend-only content management system by this inference.

A Headless CMS helps the management of both creation, modification, and publication of content whereas the traditional CMS is bloated with many complex, cumbersome and often unnecessary aspects of content management.

Headless CMS puts the user in the driver’s seat with full control over how the content created is gotten and displayed. It tailors its display of content to suit the needs of the user by taking into consideration what devices they use and what channels they choose to operate on.

The most critical thing to the headless CMS remains the delivery of content. This storage and delivery of content serves the needs of the user. And this proves the chief reason it remains miles ahead of the traditional CMS.

Understanding the Traditional Content Management System (CMS) and its functions is required before you can make any sense of the Headless Content Management System.

The early days of web development heralded the birth of the traditional CMS, and it has been around for a long time. Unlike the Headless CMS, the Traditional CMS handles both front and backend content management.

The major problem with these content management systems is that the same content they provide in web-mode frameworks are not flexible enough to show on any other digital platform because of how they are organized.

As a result of the needs required from living in today’s modern digital world, the Headless CMS was born.

Do I need a Headless CMS?

The answer is ”Yes” for some people and “No” for others. Your specific requirements should drive the answer to this question.

One CMS can be superior to the other and vice versa in different situations, so the below advantages of using a Headless CMS against a traditional CMS will help you decide.

Requirements	Traditional CMS	Headless CMS
Free technology choice	Yes	Yes
Platform independence	No	Yes
Cross-platform support	No	Yes
Developers’ first	No	Yes
Plugin apocalypse	Yes	No
Localization	Yes	Yes
Simple code	No	Yes
Security	No	Yes
Maintenance	No	Yes

The unique thing about a Headless CMS is that it is not limited to any particular website.

Your content can be stored and delivered to anywhere you want via an application program interface (API). Not having a front end (that is being headless) makes it possible to use the content on different mobile operating systems like Android, iOS, and even on a Windows device.

Use Cases for Headless CMS

1. It is used to design a website with a technology that you have become conversant with.
2. It is used for applications and sites that make use of frameworks from JavaScript. Examples include; React, Angular, and VueJs.
3. Websites such as Jekyll and Middleman, which are created with static generators for websites, are best supported by headless CMS.
4. Always suitable for and found in traditional mobile applications such as Windows Phone, Android and iOS.
5. Used to offer more information and data on e-commerce sites as it is a vital part of the websites.

Options

The headless space is growing rapidly with all indicators pointing towards Headless CMS truly becoming the future of content management systems. However, ButterCMS is currently championing the Headless CMS innovation for better content management for businesses.

Consider the many possible platforms. Start with features and concepts. ButterCMS’ Headless CMS proves a great solution for businesses. It begin modernizing the way they manage content.

It possesses a friendly API. Guides and SDKs for 18+ tech stacks make integration for developers simple. But it also handles marketers control. And creates and updates their content.

Conclusion

You will find no universally ideal content management system. Every situation proves different.

However, take out the front end of a website. It functions as the layer responsible for the presentation of content. So more platforms gain access to it. It seems logically reasonable and the best thing to do objectively.

WordPress’ Traditional CMS, for all of its flaws, no longer proves ideal. As a result, a  lot of users need something else to serve their content management needs.

The herculean task of frequently updating remains quite a challenge on its own. And compare it to what the Headless CMS offers. The flexibility to accommodate trends on its own shows why the popularity of the Traditional CMS is waning fast.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, "The Best Alternative to WordPress’ Traditional CMS in 2020" was first published on Small Business Trends

Qarnot raises $6.5 million for its computer servers that heat buildings

French startup Qarnot has raised a $6.5 million (€6 million) funding round. The company manufactures heaters and boilers with a special trick — they pack computers as computers tend to generate a lot of heat. Qarnot then lets companies leverage that computing power by running tasks on those unusual servers.

Banque des Territoires, Caisse des Dépôts, Engie Rassembleur d'Énergies, A/O PropTech and Groupe Casino are participating in today’s funding round.

When you design a data center, you transform electricity into computing resources and heat. Data centers always have to find clever new ways to get rid of heat with powerful cooling mechanisms.

Qarnot is designing alternative data centers by taking advantage of heat instead of fighting heat. The company first started with computing heaters, an electrical heater with a server. The company sells those devices to construction companies looking for heaters for their new buildings.

People living or working in those buildings can then control heating directly on the heaters or through a mobile app. Nearly 1,000 social housing units are heated by Qarnot.

At the other end of the equation, companies such as BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Natixis rent those servers for their own needs. Illumination Mac Guff is also using the platform to generate 3D models for animated movies.

Heating suffers from seasonality. That’s why Qarnot has also designed scalable boiler systems. Those boilers pack CPU servers or a mix of CPU and GPU servers. Qarnot has also set up a joint venture with Groupe Casino to heat warehouses with computer racks.