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Image Credits: Aaron Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images (Image has been modified)
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We’ve sharpened the focus of our ongoing series of investor surveys; besides asking active VCs about trends and opportunities they’ve identified, we’re also inquiring about how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered their behavior and outlook.
In this era, a closer look at the robotics industry seemed appropriate. As Brian Heater and Arman Tabatabai note, “how different would this moment be if we were bolstered by a workforce that couldn’t transmit viruses or call in sick?”
They contacted 7 of the top VCs in robotics to find ouit how they’re advising their portfolio companies:
- Kelly Chen, DCVC
- Helen Liang, FoundersX Ventures
- Shahin Farshchi, Lux Capital
- Aaron Jacobson, NEA
- Cyril Ebersweiler and Duncan Turner, SOSV & HAX
- Eric Migicovsky, Y Combinator
Their responses gave us a clear look at an industry that often flies under the radar and reflect the latest thinking about sub-verticals like food prep, fulfillment, delivery and telemedicine. The novel coronavirus has disrupted so many aspects of life we took for granted, but “this challenging time of change is a huge opportunity for innovation,” said Shahin Farshchi of Lux Capital.
Thanks very much for reading — have a relaxing and safe weekend.
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist
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Image Credits: Getty Images
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Techstars joined other startup accelerators by bringing its demo day events online last month, but TechCrunch’s reporting team was able to virtually soak in presentations from entrepreneurs in Torino, Boston, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Bangalore, Chicago and other cities.
In this summary, Jonathan Shieber and Alex Wilhelm offer their “completely unscientific picks” of the top pitches.
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Image Credits: Kinsei-TGS / Getty Images
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SaaS stocks closed at 1,484.93 yesterday on the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index — a new record.
In today’s column, Alex Wilhelm offers two reasons “why the SaaS cohort is the apple of Wall Street’s eye,” along with a meditation on the morality of capitalism.
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Image Credits: Westend61 / Getty Images
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In the first of three guest posts entrepreneur/investor Rish Joshi shared with Extra Crunch this week, he explores deep-reinforcement learning, a class of AI algorithms that “achieve superhuman performance.”
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Image Credits: Fentino / Getty Images
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In his Wednesday morning column, Alex Wilhelm looked at once-mighty unicorns that have been cutting costs and laying off staff as they hope to “move closer to profitability.”
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Bustle Digital Group’s Jason Wagenheim spoke to Anthony Ha about the difficult choices he’s making as digital media adapts to the COVID-19 era.
The company’s ad revenue could decline 35% this quarter, and BDG has laid off two dozen employees, while others have taken salary reductions.
“It was a really, really hard decision. We spent two weeks in planning, dozens of spreadsheets, negotiating with our investors on a plan that would keep the company moving forward, but [had to] be very sober to the reality of what was happening around us. But also most importantly for us, for our executive team, we weren’t about to disassemble the company that we spent the last 12 to 18 months building.”
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Image Credits: M-XR /
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Can a high-quality augmented reality shopping experience take the place of walking into a store?
Today’s AR offers virtual try-on applications for eyeglasses, sneakers and clothing, and 3D textures and lighting offer “believable” realism. Will AR transform retail in the next decade?
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Image Credits: Patrick Nouhailler / Flickr under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
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A Q2 2020 report from Silicon Valley Bank suggests that “volatility reigns” as startups curb spending and ramp up borrowing in a bleak funding environment.
“We’ve seen the least profitable late-stage firms dramatically reduce unprofitability, helping cut the median EBITDA margin’s red ink in half in a single quarter,” reports Alex Wilhelm.
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Image Credits: Peter Cade / Getty Images
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In his second guest post, Rish Joshi, a former VC at Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), writes about the rising popularity of MLOps and startups that are helping push AI into the enterprise.
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Todd Chaffee of Institutional Venture Partners is one of the world’s top VCs, but he’s not planning to make any investments out of his firm’s next fund.
“I think the IPO market is completely shut and it’s going to be shut for a while. So your exit environment really becomes the M&A world. The good news is the big tech giants out there have significant balance sheets with a lot of cash on hand, and the smart ones will start making acquisitions.”
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Image Credits: josemoraes / Getty Images
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Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz have backed startups building B2B directories and marketplaces that serve companies manufacturing everything from pharmaceuticals to construction materials.
These “SEO-driven market makers” increase demand in opaque markets by offering business buyers greater transparency. Given the specialization requirements for different industries, startups in this space have a massive opportunity.
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Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch /
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Even as the economy continues to contract, SaaS revenue is expected to hold steady in the near-term because services are usually sold on 12-month contracts.
Boston-based software startup ProfitWell shared updated performance charts with Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm, and the dataset suggests that “the return to growth for B2B SaaS companies is good news.”
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Multiple companies reported earnings this week, but Wayfair’s 23.7% spike on Tuesday caught the eye of Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm.
To study the matter, he analyzed the home goods retailer’s Q1 earnings to see “what it can tell us about consumer spending trends in the COVID-19 era.”
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Image Credits: Westend61 / Getty Images (Image has been modified)
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In his third and final guest post, contributor Rish Joshi analyzes rules from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that require healthcare providers and insurers to create APIs that will allow consumers to access their personal data.
Under the new HHS rulings, consumers will have partial access to their data in the next 6-12 months, ending a years-long debate that will see hundreds of vendors swarm the $60 billion electronic health record market.
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