aspectstaging

Melinda Gates: What #MeToo Meant For Venture Capitalists

by aspectstaging

PredictHQ exits stealth with $10 million to help Uber and others forecast demand surges

[Read on VentureBeat]

If you’ve ever tried to hail an Uber in the midst of a major sports event or during a torrential downpour, you may have noticed that the price you’re quoted is higher than normal. That’s all down to surge pricing, a mechanism that Uber has long employed to manage supply — and, yes, charge more money — when demand is high.

Oftentimes, it is hard to know when surge pricing will kick in. Uber itself will probably not know a lot of the time, it just automatically reacts when it detects a higher-than-normal request for rides from a particular area. Drivers nearby can also receive notifications when there is a surge area within 10 miles so they can drive to support the cause (and get paid more).

But one stealth company has been setting out to help companies such as Uber predict much further in advance when there is likely to be big demand for their services.

Event intelligence

New Zealand-based PredictHQ essentially aggregates datasets from myriad sources related to events covering public holidays, observances, concerts, festivals, and more. The company then throws in other “hard to find data” that it manually curates itself, as well as its own proprietary data, and bundles all of this into a single API which it licenses to companies including Uber, Domino’s, and Booking.com.

Above: Visualization of the PredictHQ platform

The company wouldn’t disclose to VentureBeat which sources it uses exactly, but it did say that it ranges from commercial databases and validated open databases to “partner enrichment,” media outlets, and user-generated datasets.

“Events have a huge impact on businesses — they just don’t often realize it,” PredictHQ cofounder and CEO Campbell Brown told VentureBeat. “We empower businesses to know the catalysts of demand before they happen, so they’re not left scrambling to keep up with demand when the crowds hit.”

Citing one example, Brown said that the American Society of Hematology brings more than 25,000 people to a different U.S. city every year (it’s in San Diego next month, folks) for an exposition, which can put a great deal of pressure on local services without the proper preparations in place. Throw into the mix a major rock concert that just happens to coincide with it in the same area, and there could be real resource issues locally.

“Most people don’t even know that event [American Society of Hematology] exists, or the fact that Fleetwood Mac or a gem fair exposition are compounding the estimated 40 percent increase in demand, let alone what kind of impact it will have on travel, tourism, logistics, and hospitality in its city each year,” Brown added. “It’s impossible to prepare for huge spikes in demand you don’t see coming, but with event intelligence you can. If you run a food chain, you can ensure you’ve ordered enough ingredients to cope, or if you’re Uber, you can proactively get more cars out on the roads so you can improve pick-up times.”

Stealth

Founded out of Auckland in 2015, PredictHQ officially launches out of stealth today, and revealed that it has raised $10 million in a series A round of funding led by Aspect Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rampersand VC, and AddVenture Fund. Prior to now, the company had raised around $2 million (NZD), which is roughly around $1.4 million (USD).

Additionally, PredictHQ is upping sticks and relocating company HQ from New Zealand to San Francisco as it looks to double down on the U.S. market. In fact, one of the reasons that PredictHQ was able to secure its inaugural U.S.-based investment was that CEO Brown was willing to move his company and family to the U.S.

“We started PredictHQ because we realized that travel businesses can benefit from understanding the catalysts of human movement,” Brown said. “But we soon realized that the potential opportunity for event data intelligence goes beyond travel and one specific industry. This set us on a path to evolve from being a data intelligence feed into a new form of intelligence that can help businesses understand the needs of their customers. We plan to build up our international presence, hire a skilled team both in the U.S. and in New Zealand, and help businesses in all industries use event data as a form of intelligence.”

Above: PredictHQ team: CEO Campbell Brown is second from right

At the beginning, the bulk of PredictHQ’s employees will still be based in New Zealand, though the company anticipates this changing over time — particularly when it opens a new European office at some point in the future.

Big data

Leveraging big data to derive meaningful information is big business across a multitude of industries. In the past couple of months alone, Hopper raised $100 million to grow its big data-powered airfare prediction platform, while ZenCity raised $6 million for an AI platform that helps cities crunch data and track residents’ sentiment. Elsewhere, Launchmetrics nabbed $50 million to help brands harness big data to target influencers.

“For too long, businesses have lacked the ability to truly understand how the movement of people across the world impacts revenue, product usage, supply chain and operations,” said Aspect Ventures’ cofounder Theresia Gouw, who now joins PredictHQ’s board of directors. “PredictHQ solves this problem.”

With PredictHQ, Booking.com can “optimize its pricing” for hotel rooms based on events that it knows are coming up in an area, though another way of looking at that is that it will allow Booking.com to take advantage and charge more. The same goes for Uber, of course. But for a company such as Domino’s, the data can be massively helpful in terms of knowing how many drivers to have on-shift at a certain time, or how much ingredients it should allocate to a particular outlet.

Ultimately, it’s all about better understanding the supply chain, and this could potentially be used by all manner of companies, from airlines and food and drink multinationals, to clothing retailers.

“Any company selling a tangible good or service — from transportation to soft drinks to computer hardware — needs to optimize their supply chain and understand their demand,” added Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Arif Janmohamed. “With PredictHQ, those companies now have access to the necessary data to do just that.”

by aspectstaging

Aspect Ventures recruits Lugani as principal

Silicon Valley-based Aspect Ventures, a venture firm, has named Vishal Lugani as principal. Lugani joined the firm in 2016. Prior to joining Aspect, Lugani worked at Greycroft Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 31, 2018) – Aspect Ventures, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, today announced the appointment of Vishal Lugani to Principal of the firm. Vishal joined Aspect Ventures in 2016 and has played a significant role in several of the firm’s investments. As Principal, Vishal will lead new investments and continue to focus on identifying strategic areas of interest for the firm.

“Vishal’s steadfast commitment to our portfolio companies and strategic approach to identifying unique investment opportunities makes him a great asset to the Aspect team,” said Theresia Gouw, co-founder of Aspect Ventures. Fellow co-founder Jennifer Fonstad added, “In just two years, Vishal has added tremendous value to Aspect and has established himself as a trusted and collaborative partner not only within the firm but also to the many portfolio companies he advises.”

In addition to playing an active role in several of Aspect’s investments, Vishal works with many of the firm’s portfolio companies across a range of industries, including digital health companies Vida Health, Amino and Worklete, enterprise productivity and machine learning-powered software companies such as Astro (acquired by Slack), Integris, & Stem.io, and consumer-focused businesses such as HotelTonight and BaubleBar.

“I’m excited to be part of a world-class team that seeks to back exceptional companies and entrepreneurs who are ushering in the next wave of innovation” said Vishal Lugani, Principal at Aspect Ventures. “I look forward to continuing my work at Aspect to identify new opportunities for the firm and to support our incredible management teams.”

Vishal was previously named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. Prior to Aspect, he spent several years at Greycroft Partners. While at Greycroft, Vishal invested in and supported portfolio companies including Acorns, App Annie, HopSkipDrive and Everything But the House, among others. Vishal began his career at Bain & Company in the firm’s New York and Los Angeles offices. A graduate of Harvard University, Vishal launched the school’s chapter of the Kairos Society, an organization supporting young entrepreneurs globally, and continues to advise the organization today.

Aspect recently closed its second institutional venture fund of $200 million to continue its mission of investing in early stage technology companies.

About Aspect Ventures
Aspect Ventures, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2014 by two Silicon Valley venture capital veterans. Aspect raised its first institutional fund of $150 million in 2015 and a second investment fund of $200 million in 2018. Aspect invests across a broad array of industries including cybersecurity, future of work, digital health, and several other emerging technology areas. Current portfolio companies include cybersecurity providers Forescout Technologies (FSCT), Cato Networks, Exabeam, ShieldX, Integris; future of work-focused companies Crew, Gusto, Chime, The Muse and Troops; and digital health startups such as Vida Health, Grokker, and Solv. Artificial intelligence serves as the foundational technological platform for several of Aspect’s investments targeting key verticals, including companies like healthcare data provider Amino, future of work focused companies such as Troops and Qordoba, and autonomous vehicle software provider Mapper. Taken together, the track record of the firm’s investment team includes 12 IPOs, 30 successful acquisitions, multiple billions in public market cap, and over 500 rounds in follow-on capital raised for portfolio companies.

by aspectstaging

All Raise Will Match Underrepresented Investors With Big-Name VCs

[Read on Fortune]

For All Raise to meet its goal of doubling the percentage of female partners at U.S. venture capital firms in 10 years, it has to start with the women already working in venture.

The organization supporting women in tech and venture capital on Thursday launched VC Champions, a mentorship program that will match women and underrepresented men with general partners—men and women—at top venture capital firms. Bessemer Venture Partners’ Byron Deeter, First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, Upfront Ventures’ Mark Suster, Aspect Ventures’ Theresia Gouw, and Lux Capital’s Renata Quintini are among the partners who will assist rising investors.

“We wanted to help mentor and guide the next generation of folks coming up the ranks,” says Greycroft Ventures’ Ellie Wheeler, who has spearheaded the initiative. “Given that venture is such a relationship-driven business, getting different perspectives, getting guidance, and creating pathways can be really important.”

All Raise is targeting up-and-coming investors at the principal level, just below partner. Investors who apply and are accepted to the inaugural class of about 25 will be matched with a different general partner for a one-on-one meeting each quarter.

All Raise itself launched in April, the brainchild of women in venture capital throughout Silicon Valley. In addition to reaching its target number of women in venture, its other goal is to increase the percentage of female founders in five years. This initiative will work in tandem to achieve both milestones at the same time, says Aspect Ventures’ Theresia Gouw, a mentor through the program and a founding member of All Raise.

“As we improve that side of it, the deal flow, the number of women who get seen and eventually get funded by venture capital firms will also increase,” Gouw says.

VC Champions will complement Female Founder Office Hours, an initiative connecting new female founders with women who have successfully founded companies. Both programs aim to match emerging investors and emerging founders with established counterparts in similar sectors or stages on the venture side.

The venture version, however, includes men—in a couple of ways. A cohort of underrepresented men will be part of the program’s rising stars class. Male VCs will also participate in the mentor role; perhaps not surprising given that men account for the vast majority of decision-makers in venture capital.

“Having male allies is key. The senior partner ranks are over 95% men. We need men to also be invested in the goals of All Raise,” Gouw says. “We can’t do it just in isolation. We need male partners to be alongside us.”

by aspectstaging

Future Family raises $10M to make fertility treatments more affordable

by aspectstaging

The Startup Postmates and Visa Use To Watch Their Language Just Raised $11.5 Million To Expand

by aspectstaging

Shipwell Raises $10m in Series A Funding

[Read on FinSMEs]

Shipwell, an Austin, Texas-based online business freight shipping platform, raised $10m in Series A funding.

The round, which brought total funding to date to $12.1m, was led by Fifth Wall Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital and Aspect Ventures, and existing investors First Round Capital, Base10, and Village Global. In conjunction with the funding, Fifth Wall principal Vik Chawla will join Shipwell’s Board of Directors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its marketing efforts, improve the product, and amplify the team.

Led by Gregory Price, CEO, Shipwell provides a platform that lets users transport freight across the country with instant quoting and booking, real-time shipment tracking.
Users can also centralize all their freight in one place across modes, carriers, documents, analytics and more.

Over 1,000 companies currently use Shipwell.

by aspectstaging

There’s no Google Maps for self-driving cars, so this startup is building it

Self-driving cars navigate using both onboard sensors that spot obstacles and detailed, 3-D maps of streets, signs, and infrastructure. But building these maps, and keeping them up to date, is a huge undertaking. Mapper.ai, a San Francisco–based startup, wants to make the process simpler with a service that provides continuously updated maps on demand.

The service, which launches publicly next week, lets companies select any place in the world they want mapped, provided it has public roads. Mapper then hires local drivers to collect geographic data, converts the data into 3-D maps, and sells the maps—and subsequent updates—via a subscription service.

Mapper has been working with a small group of customers for the past year on maps for autonomous or semi-autonomous driving. The company currently has maps of places in Asia, Europe, and North America, and its eventual goal is to assemble the world’s largest repository of up-to-date, machine-readable maps of city streets and freeways. Though companies are testing autonomous vehicles in just a few cities right now, Mapper CEO and cofounder Nikhil Naikal thinks trials will expand to dozens of cities and span thousands of miles within the next year or two. “These machine maps haven’t been built on a large scale yet,” says Naikal, who has worked on autonomous-vehicle sensors and mapping for more than a decade. “We’re on a mission to create them all over the world, faster than anyone else—and because we own them, we can sell them to everyone.”

Mapper credits its broad reach and speed to its network of freelancers. Most of its drivers also drive for ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft; they capture mapping data in the middle of the day, when few people request rides. (Mapper lures them by paying rates as high as $3 per mile, triple the $1 per mile the average Uber driver is believed to earn.)

The drivers use their own cars, and Mapper provides the mapping devices, which cost about $350 to build. Instead of designing pricey, proprietary hardware, the startup buys sensors off the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba and adds its own software that fuses all the data together. One device model, which wraps around a car’s rear-view mirror, has four machine-vision cameras and sensors that measure linear and angular motion. Another sits on top of a car’s roof and consists of two machine-vision cameras, motion sensors, and a simple lidar. Drivers use that device to map dense city streets, because lidar is good at capturing the geometry of three-dimensional structures. The company claims its approach captures details that are accurate within five centimeters , which is on par with other technologies.

To map an area, drivers simply follow turn-by-turn audio directions that Mapper pipes through a mobile app synched to the mapping device. Once the drivers finish their assigned tasks, they upload the information to Mapper’s cloud storage facility, where it is converted automatically to what’s known as a point cloud, a 3-D representation of the world. A second team of freelancers looks at the data and adds notes about lane markings, traffic signs, and stoplights. Mapper delivers the finished maps to customers over Wi-Fi, typically 24 hours after it receives the driving data.

 

   

This distributed workforce and self-serve model enable Mapper to offer its customers updates as often as daily while guaranteeing that its maps will cover 100% of a given area. “Once we have a driver on the ground, we can do that routing as frequently as customers want,” says Neehar Garg, who leads Mapper’s product development. “Updates get easier and easier, because we only have to spend time on the things that have changed in an environment.”

A Mapper customer, who asked not to be named because he works for an automaker that is using the maps in a secret project, says he hired the startup over bigger names like HERE and TomTom. “If you’re programming a car to turn a corner, you need to know where you’re located within the map you’re using [for navigation], not where you are in the world in an absolute sense,” says the customer. “With this new type of map, you get that localization baked in, which is really important because GPS alone isn’t stable or predictable enough.”

Other startups in this industry, such as DeepMap, also make localized maps, but they ask their customers to gather the information for them. Because those companies don’t own their own mapping data, they tend to build individual maps of the same area for each customer. Naikal says that approach won’t scale once autonomous vehicles move from development to production and deployment. It makes no sense to create a map of, say, Market Street in San Francisco 20 times for 20 different customers when you can sell a single map to multiple customers and ensure it is always current, he says.

While self-driving cars haven’t yet delivered on their promise to revolutionize transportation, Naikal hopes his cartography collection can become the basis for innovation. He’s even thinking of providing maps to individual developers and engineers, similar to the way mobile-app developers use location information from Google Maps (although he hasn’t decided whether Mapper will charge for access). “Today it’s not possible for five developers to hang out in Starbucks and create an autonomous-vehicle solution,” says Naikal. “But it could be if we remove barriers and let people request and get [machine-readable] maps of any area.”

by aspectstaging

Slack acquires Astro to conquer email

[Read on TechCrunch]

by aspectstaging