Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 16th June 2019
News you can use
Why I left Microsoft to join a startup – When my eighth grade yearbook made a prediction of where each person would be in 10 years, it was no surprise to my family and friends that I was listed as working for Bill Gates. Immediately after college, this prediction came true, and I began my master class in building enterprise software. Anytime I needed a change of pace, there was another team ready to excite me; I worked in operations on MSN, in Windows as a Tester, and finally Visual Studio and Azure DevOps as a Program manager. Then, after 17 years, there I was explaining to my parents why I was handing in my blue badge to work for a startup. While they were supportive, they were also a bit shocked. I constantly bragged that I was fortunate enough to go to work every morning with a smile on my face, excited for the day ahead. So why was I throwing this all away and working for a company they’d never heard of?
How Iran’s startup sector can realize its potential – Experts agree that the promotion of knowledge-based startups would be a suitable remedy to address the intensifying unemployment in Iran. In fact, with youth unemployment at 27.5%, the Iranian authorities need to look for opportunities to create jobs for the country’s young, educated and tech-savvy population. While in recent years a considerable growth has been recorded in information technology (IT) startups and related investments, the actual level of activity is well below the potential that this sector offers.
The FAA is offering new partnership opportunities to validate key drone technologies – Is your company up for a challenge? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will partner with qualified commercial companies who can match the agency’s $6 million pledge to perform vital drone integration safety work at the FAA’s UAS test sites. “The FAA intends to bridge the gap between industry and the test sites to tackle some of our most difficult technical and operational challenges,” said Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell today at the FAA UAS Symposium in Baltimore.
Startup Merger and Acquisitions
Why Bird Wants to Buy Smaller Electric Scooter Rival Scoot – Bird agreed to acquire smaller electric scooter rival Scoot, a San Francisco-based company that operates a fleet of mopeds and scooters. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but the WSJ reports that Bird paid approximately $25 million in a cash and stock deal. That’s … not exactly great news given that Scoot was last valued at $70 million in 2017. It had raised $47 million in venture funding from investors including Maveron and Elemental Excelerator. So why Scoot? The second I saw the news, I thought “Duh, it’s about San Francisco.” Remember last year when San Francisco chose much-smaller players Skip and Scoot as its scooter launch partners, effectively shunning Bird and Lime? Yeah, Bird probably didn’t like that.
Grab Is Said to Have Discussed Buying Asia Payments Startup 2C2P – Singapore ride-hailing giant Grab held talks to acquire payments provider 2C2P Pte and was turned down, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of the ambitions Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup has in financial services. Grab was one of multiple possible bidders interested in 2C2P with preliminary offers ranging up to about $200 million, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The payments startup, also based in Singapore, decided instead to raise additional capital to keep expanding as an independent company, they said.
Allscripts acquires specialty drug prescribing startup ZappRX – As part of its effort to bolster its Veradigm business vertical, EHR company Allscripts has decided to acquire specialty medication prescription startup Boston-based ZappRX. The startup built a cloud-based platform that helps speed up the administrative tasks like electronic prior-authorization and REMS documentation associated with prescribing speciality medication.
Startups failures
Amazon shuts down its food-delivery business – The hyper-competetive Food tech and delivery business is not easy to operate. A few recent shutdowns include Meal-delivery startup Munchery, Canadian FoodTech startup Food Starter, Indie Plate among others. Now, the tech giant Amazon is also discovering how tough the business segment is. Amazon sent an email on June 12th to Amazon Flex delivery drivers notifying them of the shutdown: “Amazon Restaurants will be closing later this month. After June 24th, you will no longer see offers for Restaurants deliveries,” the email reads. “You will continue to see blocks for all the other programs that Amazon Flex Delivery Partners support: Amazon.com, Prime Now, AmazonFresh, and Whole Foods.”
Another Legal Tech Startup Is Shutting Down – SupportHound, a spousal support calculator for Oregon attorneys that used real cases to calculate how much and how long a spousal support award should be. SupportHound was founded in 2016 by Julie Gentili Armbrust, an attorney and family law mediator in Oregon. The site uses data collected from actual cases to analyze the financial situations of parties going through a divorce and recommend a suggested support award. The suggestion forms a data-driven basis for negotiations with opposing counsel.In an email last week to SupportHound customers, Armbrust said that she had made the difficult decision to shut down the site.