Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 28th April 2019
News you can use
Amazon’s Bot automatically tracks and fires warehouse workers for ‘productivity’ – Amazon employs an automated system to tracks warehouse workers’ productivity, and automatically fire them for failing to meet expectations.
Why P&G Ventures May Be A Better Option For Startups Than Traditional VC Firms – Many entrepreneurs turn to Venture Capital firms to help fund their startup. However, there has been a notable amount of press regarding the bias present in some VC firms that impacts the startups that they choose to invest in. Bloomberg found that less than 3% of funding had gone to female entrepreneurs and they received significantly less money than did men (see this article in Entrepreneur for more detail). Further, a 2016 Center for Global Policy Solutions report suggested that bias towards white male led companies (and discriminatory financing practices) costs America in terms of minority-owned business, jobs, and GDP.
7 Growth Strategies Sure to Spur Fresh Success – All businesses and professionals should desire it and most certainly need it. But achieving and sustaining growth in today’s uber-complex environment—whether corporate, entrepreneurial or personal career growth—takes multifaceted vision, ingenuity and agility. Indeed, a lack of growth in business speaks volumes. It says a business or individual hasn’t fruitfully evolved in its own lifecycle (or career cycle), hasn’t kept pace with industry trends, that increased profitability isn’t being prioritized (or valued) … or all of the above. Even when all of these things are successfully realized, there’s still quite a macro fight to be had as one endeavors to advance.
Startup M&A
Amazon acquires autonomous warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology – Amazon has acquired Boulder, Colo.-based warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology, TechCrunch has learned. The deal makes a lot of sense from the outside, adding another important piece to Amazon Robotics’ growing portfolio of fulfillment center machines. Amazon confirmed the acquisition with TechCrunch. “We are inspired by Canvas Technology’s innovations, and share a common vision for a future where people work alongside robotics to further improve safety and the workplace experience,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Canvas Technology’s fantastic team to keep inventing for customers.”
McDonald’s Just Spent $300 Million on a Little Known Startup. Here’s Why It Was a Brilliant Move – McDonald’s stunned a lot of people yesterday when it announced its biggest acquisition in 20 years–one that reportedly cost it over $300 million. No, McDonald’s didn’t buy a competitor.
It bought a tech company. That’s right–McDonald’s has reached an agreement to acquire Dynamic Yield, an Israeli startup that specializes in “decision logic” technology. This tech uses data acquired from previous purchases to recommend additional purchases. (Think: the “customers like you also bought” suggestions when shopping on Amazon, for example.)
Danish IoT startup Webstech acquired by US-based TeleSense – Danish wireless sensor startup Webstech has been acquired by TeleSense, a US-based IoT company that specialises in solutions to improve grain storage. TeleSense plans to integrate Webstech’s products into its offering to offer a suite of sensor tech for grain storage facilities. Webstech CEO Thomas Kylling, who has a background in agriculture, will now join the TeleSense team as managing director for Europe. Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen from Maersk Growth Ventures will join the Board of Directors of the newly created TeleSense Europe ApS subsidiary.
Failed Startups
Housing startup HomeShare shuts down – San Francisco based housing startup HomeShare announced that it has shut down after laying off the majority of its staff. In a recent blog post, Jeff Pang, HomeShare’s founder and CEO announced “It’s with a heavy heart that I am announcing that HomeShare is shutting down. Effective today, April 26th, 2019, HomeShare has ceased operations and closed its doors.”
Essel Group-backed ZipGo said to have suspended services – ZipGo laid off at least 60 employees from its workforce. ZipGo allows commuters to reserves seats on its buses through a mobile app, similar to cab aggregators like Uber and Ola. ZipGo shutdown comes just months after Essel Group’s proposed merger deal with DTH operator Videocon was blocked by a legal dispute in Delhi High Court. Services like ZipGo and Shuttl had earlier ran into regulatory roadblocks with some city-level regulators. ZipGo had also launched women-only shuttle services in Gurgaon in 2015, but were unable to convince authorities in Bengaluru.
Multiple companies in Pakistan near shutdown due to strict regulations on imports/exports – While the government stresses to improve the startup culture in Pakistan, there are several policies in place that are still hindering the growth of these companies towards becoming successful IT organizations. Economic conditions and the current regulations on import and export items are making it difficult for hardware extensive companies and startups to exist in the market and they are being forced to shut down their businesses.
Cooking tech startup ChefSteps, funded by Valve’s Gabe Newell, cuts jobs but says it will live on – ChefSteps, the high-tech cooking startup financed by video game titan Gabe Newell, cut an unspecified number of jobs on Wednesday, significantly scaling back its operations. But the company plans to remain in business, and continue selling and supporting its Joule sous vide cooking device, according to co-founder and CEO Chris Young.