- Uber-Ola battle goes from the streets to court: Uber alleges Ola employees are making bookings on its platform by creating fake accounts, seeks Rs50 crore in damages; Ola denies the charges. Uber alleged that Ola is intentionally causing it to lose sales. Uber alleged in court that Ola’s employees are making bookings on Uber’s platform by creating fake accounts and then cancelling them. This is the equivalent of a shopping site’s employee placing orders on a rival site and then returning the goods for no good reason. Uber calculated the total loss incurred by it because of such alleged practices by Ola and sought damages worthRs.496,164,780 from the latter. A total of “93,859 fake accounts” have been created by Ola, which have been used to make “4,05,649 false bookings” across various cities that were later cancelled, it said. Such cancellations roughly amounted to 8-10% of its total bookings, Uber added. Uber and Ola are fighting for dominance of India’s cab business that, according to Ola’s largest investor SoftBank Group, may be worth $7 billion by 2020. Justice Vipin Sanghi, who was hearing the matter, issued notices to both ANI Technologies Ltd (Ola) and Serendipity Infolabs (TaxiForSure, acquired by Ola) asking for replies to be filed before the next date. Ola’s statement denying all allegations was also recorded. A day after Alexander’s interview was published, a senior Ola official said the company’s newly launched low-cost offering, Micro, will soon do more daily cab rides than all of Uber India.According to US-based Uber, the company has wiped out Ola’s massive lead in a year. “In January last year, we were at 5% market share. Now we are right at the edge of 50%. I would say that within the next 30 days we would beat them (Ola). We will surpass them very, very shortly,” Alexander had said in an interview on 16 March.
- Chip-Card Payment System Delays Frustrate Retailers: Avi Kaner, a co-owner of the Morton Williams supermarket chain in New York, has spent about $700,000 to update the payment terminals at his stores. Trouble is, he cannot turn them on. The new terminals can accept credit and debit cards with embedded digital chips, a security feature intended to reduce the number of fraudulent purchases. But before the payment systems can work, they must be certified, a process that Mr. Kaner and many retailers around the country are waiting to happen. In the case of Morton Williams, the holdup has lasted several months. The cost of waiting, retailers say, is piling up. Until recently, banks covered much of the cost of fraudulent purchases. Since Oct. 1, though, merchants that cannot accept chip cards have had to shoulder the cost of fraud, and banks have not been shy about passing along the bill. “It’s been very frustrating,” Mr. Kaner said in an interview last week at his office in the Bronx, the home of his family-owned business. He bought most of the equipment he needed before Oct. 1, he said, and has been waiting months to get it certified. The delay, he said, pointing to a tall pile of paperwork, has cost him thousands of dollars in payments for fraudulent purchases. The long delays are just the latest black eye for the deployment of the new systems. Some consumers have not yet received new cards. Many merchants have not bought the updated equipment. And even when the cards and the terminals have been updated, they have generated confusion and slow lines. Many of the complications were widely predicted, but the certification system has added an unexpected wrinkle — and lots of finger-pointing. Banks say that retailers waited till the last minute to update their terminals. Retailers point to financial ties between the banks and the companies that provide certification, saying there is no motivation to move faster.
- Uber offers hackers 'treasure map' to find computer flaws: Uber, the high-flying transportation firm, is releasing a technical map of its computer and communications systems and inviting hackers to find weaknesses in exchange for cash bounties. While so-called "bug bounties" are not new, Uber's move shows how mainstream companies are increasingly relying on independent computer researchers to help them bolster their systems. It also indicates growing acceptance of the idea that making computer code public can make systems more secure, a philosophy that has long been advocated by the open-source software movement. Uber's “Treasure Map” details the ride-hailing company's software infrastructure, identifies what sorts of data might be exposed inadvertently and suggests what types of flaws are the most likely to be found. HackerOne, a San Francisco rival called Bugcrowd and other startups have helped accelerate efforts to tap the independent security community to identify serious programming mistakes before criminals or spies do. They can serve as intermediaries between researchers and companies, and sometimes vet their findings. A decade ago, hackers pointing out problems feared arrest but they can now earn modest sums from platforms like HackerOne. Firms such as Uber, looking to bolster their defenses, don’t pay as much as criminals and military contractors who are looking for tools to carry out offensive attacks, but they offer options to those who would prefer to act as "white hats." Bugcrowd Chief Executive Officer Casey Ellis said he has seen a surge in corporate clients asking for private bounty programs that are open to selected researchers. “That increases the amount of trust you are giving to the researchers,” Ellis said. “We run trusted programs where people get prerelease versions of Internet of Things devices or access to source code.
- Domo takes on Slack with $130 million at $2 billion+ valuation: Utah-based Domo has been a force in the enterprise space for a few years with its data management platforms, but the team is poised for growth with an additional $130 million in Series D funding from existing and new investors, including BlackRock, Credit Suisse and others. These $130 million are an addition to Domo’s previously announced $200 million Series D round. The company says it is now valued at $2 billion. “We didn’t need the money,” Domo founder and CEO Josh James said of the funding round. He called it a “nice buffer,” but insists that the team didn’t need the cash and plans to go public within the year. Domo also today launched its app store, a mix of about 1,000 free and freemium apps, which can be customized for any company. The company is also introducing a free messaging service with threaded conversations, which James refers to as a Slack competitor. With more than 1,000 customers, including eBay and MasterCard, James said the team has achieved $100 million in bookings so far and that revenue is doubling. Domo has 800 employees and may hire another 500 in 2016. James previously founded web analytics platform Omniture, taking it public and eventually selling it to Adobe for $1.8 billion. The serial entrepreneur thinks he has what it takes to build something even bigger.
- Google hired Morgan Stanley's CFO to succeed Patrick Pichette as its new CFO: Google said it hired Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, to succeed Patrick Pichette as its new CFO in May. Porat, 57, will leave Morgan Stanley in April after 28 years at the firm, the New York-based company said Tuesday in a memo to employees. Jonathan Pruzan, 46, co-head of global financial institutions banking, will become Morgan Stanley’s new CFO. Porat, one of Wall Street’s most senior female executives, pivots from a job in which she built up cash reserves for safety to one where she must figure out how to use Google’s growing cash pile. In five years as Morgan Stanley’s CFO, the Stanford University alumna has helped stabilize an investment bank that almost collapsed in 2008. “I’m delighted to be returning to my California roots and joining Google,” Porat said in a statement released by the Mountain View, California-based Internet company. “Growing up in Silicon Valley, during my time at Morgan Stanley and as a member of Stanford’s board, I’ve had the opportunity to experience first-hand how tech companies can help people in their daily lives. I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get started.”Silicon Valley has tapped Wall Street bankers to help them manage the finances associated with their rapid growth. Twitter Inc. last year named Anthony Noto, 46, previously Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s co-head of technology, media and telecommunications banking, as its CFO.
- More on the same: Its stock trailing peers, Google looks to Wall Street for CFO as costs, cash grow: Google Inc. is turning to Wall Street for its next chief financial officer as the technology giant grapples with rising costs, a growing pile of cash and a need for fiscal discipline as it invests in new industries. Ruth Porat, 57, will leave Morgan Stanley in April after more than 25 years there, the New York-based company said Tuesday in a memo to employees. Jonathan Pruzan, 46, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of global financial-institutions banking, will become the company’s new finance chief. At Google, Porat will succeed Patrick Pichette, who announced earlier this month that he would retire. She is set to take her new post on May 26. Investors are looking for Porat, one of the financial industry’s most senior female executives, to apply her financial acumen as Google invests to spur growth amid increased competition from Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. She follows other financial-services veterans who have migrated to Silicon Valley firms, such as social-media service Twitter Inc., payments-provider Square Inc. and messaging startup Snapchat Inc. “A dose of increased discipline could certainly serve Google well,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners LP. “The key to this job is going to be the person that rationalizes the expenses of the company. Google is full of people who want to pursue big ideas.” Google’s net income climbed 41 percent in its latest quarter from a year earlier, while Facebook’s increased 34 percent and Apple’s rose 38 percent. Google’s shares have lagged behind its rivals, dropping 0.3 percent in the year through Tuesday. Facebook’s shares meanwhile rose 33 percent, while Apple’s increased 64 percent. Google’s shares rose 2.2 percent to close at $577.54 on Tuesday.
- TPG-backed AGS Transact plans up to $216.6 million India IPO: India's AGS Transact Technologies, partly owned by U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital [TPG.UL], plans an up to 13.5 billion rupees ($216.6 million) initial public offering, according to a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The company plans to raise up to 4 billion rupees by issuing new shares, while TPG and other shareholders would raise up to 9.5 billion rupees selling existing shares in AGS, which offers payment solutions and technology products to banks and retailers, the terms showed.
- Accel announces $305M India fund, joins large tech investors accelerating India-focuse activity: Accel Partners has just announced a new US$305 million fund for India to invest in very early stage companies as well as those already in the growth trajectory. “The investment focus area will cover consumer, enterprise software, mobile, and healthcare businesses,” Subrata Mitra, partner with the VC firm, wrote on the company blog. This is Accel’s fourth fund for India. Accel has a star-studded portfolio of companies in India, including ecommerce major Flipkart, analytics company MuSigma, and cloud-based customer support provider Freshdesk. Since its Indian entry in 2005, it has had a few successful exits as well, including Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart, TaxiForSure, which was acquired by Ola, and Virident, which was acquired by Western Digital. The venture capital flow into India moved to a new orbit last year, with nearly US$5 billion of startup funding. A number of big players have been pumping money into India. The leader of the pack is Tiger Global, the lead investor in Flipkart, which raised a whopping US$1.7 billion in 2014 alone. Tiger Global raised US$4 billion in two rounds last year, and a substantial portion of that can be expected to come to India. Sequoia is another big player from Silicon Valley, which raised a US$530 million India-focused fund last year. India-based VCs too are pulling in big bucks. Earlier this month, Saif Partners raised a US$350 million fund, and late last year, Lightbox VC raised a second fund of US$100 million. Investors focused on just the early stage startups have also been successful in raising money for India. 500 Startups and Blume Ventures have recently raised their second funds. There is growing interest from the east as well. SoftBank of Japan made three big investments last year in Snapdeal, Ola, and Housing. What’s more, it has pledged an investment of US$10 billion into India over the next few years. The rapid spread of smartphone and internet usage in a large population is one of the main factors making Indian tech startups attractive. An improvement in economic sentiment following the change in government is also making India the place to go for venture capital investors.
- With turn-by-turn directions, Google's Waze app wants to win location-based mobile advertising: Two years after Google acquired Waze for more than $1 billion, new research and prolonged advertising deals from brands show that the mapping app is making a dent in the lucrative—and competitive—market of location-based mobile advertising. Waze has kept a relatively low profile since being acquired by the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, building up an ad business with a core group of retail, fast-food, gas and transportation brands. Equipped with data and a solid following of daily users who consistently use the app to navigate traffic, Google is battling Facebook, independent ad networks and Foursquare for a piece of what BIA/Kelsey forecasts will be a $15.5 billion market by 2018, up from $4.5 billion in 2014. New research released this week shows how the app's promos affect ad recall and navigation rate, or the number of people who drove to a location after clicking on an ad. The mobile player offers advertisers two formats—branded pins and takeover ads. Branded pins show drivers how far away they are from stores. And takeovers are interstitial ads designed not to distract drivers. They pop up when a user is idle for three or more seconds and disappear when the car starts moving. Per Waze, ad recall increased 86 percent for drivers who saw branded pins compared to those who didn't. And takeover ads boosted ad recall by 155 percent when compared to a group of drivers that was not served ads. To measure navigational lift, Waze compared how people searched and clicked for directions after seeing a brand's ad, with a control group that did not see ads. On average, navigational lift increased 53 percent after either a pin or takeover ad. According to Jordan Grossman, head of U.S. sales at Waze, the average Waze user spends more than five hours with the app each month. That high level of engagement has kept advertisers coming back. After working with brands on quarterly campaigns in 2014, 25 percent of Waze advertisers—including Dunkin' Donuts, Phillips 66, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, Outback Steakhouse and Metrolink—are running yearlong campaigns for 2015. Waze crowdsources traffic data that brands can then use to target their promos by time, day and location. The app also has a partnership with Accuweather, pulling in real-time weather conditions like temperature, humidity and pollen count that brands can buy ads against. "[Advertisers are] now drilling in on a tactical level and seeing there are a number of different layers that you can use to engage people within a mobile environment," Grossman said.
- Slack said to be in talks to raise money at more than $2B valuation: Slack, the San Francisco start-up that makes a workplace collaboration app, is back on the fund-raising trail and is in talks to raise money at a valuation of more than $2 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The talks come just four months after Slack, which is run by the entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield, raised $120 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion. The valuation could change because the talks are still occurring, according to this person, who requested anonymity because of continuing ties to the company. But the talks are another reflection of how Silicon Valley start-ups have been raising money at a furious pace, often snagging tens of millions of dollars and more than doubling their value just months after a previous financing round. Uber, the hugely popular ride-hailing app, has raised billions of dollars in little more than two years. Snapchat, a messaging start-up, has raised hundreds of millions in very short order as well. Bloomberg News earlier reported Slack’s new fund-raising. Mr. Butterfield declined a request for comment. In a recent interview, Mr. Butterfield acknowledged that Slack has “a lot of money and not a lot to spend on,” though he added the company is planning to increase its spending on marketing. The company employs just over 100 people. To date, Slack has raised about $180 million from firms such as Google Ventures, Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, among others. Mr. Butterfield has been tossing around the idea of leasing a small storefront in one of San Francisco’s prime retail hotspots. A store, which might cost about $15,000 to $20,000 a month, could work as a public help desk for Slack’s rising number of users. It would also work to market the brand to new users. Slack was introduced about a year ago by Mr. Butterfield and now serves about half a million workers every day, who use the app as a kind of replacement for email and instant messaging. The company offers a free version of its product and also charges companies a monthly fee of $6.50 or more for each user if they want additional features. Mr. Butterfield recently said Slack wasn’t profitable and that its losses totaled “a couple hundred thousand dollars a month.”
- Apple acquires NoSQL provider FoundationDB to bolster its server-side cloud technology: Apple has acquired FoundationDB, a company that specializes in speedy, durable NoSQL databases, TechCrunch has learned. A notice on the FoundationDB site notes that it’s no longer offering downloads of its database software. Financial terms of the deal were not available. CEO David Rosenthal was previously VP of Engineering at Omniture and co-founded the company with COO Nick Lavezzo and Dave Scherer in 2009. FoundationDB’s attractiveness came in the speed at which it handled ACID-compliant transactions and coupled that with strong scalability. FoundationDB hosted a booth at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in 2012, where we first wrote about its approach to a modern NoSQL database and its ‘NoSQL, YesACID’ motto. FoundationDB’s latest engine, which was covered by TC Columnist Jon Evans late last year, scaled up 14.4 million random writes per second. imag1829 A FoundationDB blog post on its newest engine made the following claim: At current (December 2014) AWS (non-spot) pricing and including enterprise FoundationDB licenses for all 480 cores with full 24/7 support this mega-cluster only costs about $150/hr. In that same hour this cluster will achieve 54 billion writes, yielding a cost-per-write of 3 nanodollars. Said another way, FoundationDB can do 3.6 million database writes per penny. So. A fast, affordable and durable database company, acquired by Apple. It seems likely that this was an acquisition designed to bolster Apple’s server-side technologies for the App Store, iTunes Connect or iTunes in the Cloud. With millions of apps now in the store and billions being served to users, there is undoubtedly room for improvement in those systems. Of course, there is always Apple’s rumored over-the-top TV service, which some reports claim is coming our way later this year. The need to be able to serve video at scale there will likely require bolstering systems, as we discussed with the head of media at the MLB just this week. The reliability and speed of Apple’s cloud services are more critical than ever now that it has shipped 700 million iPhones alone — along with millions more iPads and Macs — all of which use iCloud.
