Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Scientists Announce 'Breakthrough' Atomic Map of Coronavirus
iQoo 3 Price, Specifications Leaked Ahead of Launch Next Week
US Urges EU to Use 5G by Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung
Google Users in UK Said to Lose EU Data Protection Due to Brexit
Codeacademy has already outlived many rivals — is that enough?
Codeacademy, the New York-based online interactive platform that offers coding classes in a wide variety of programming languages, is a little like background noise; it’s been operating reliably since founder Zach Sims created the company while still a Columbia University student in 2011. It’s a brand that people know and that millions have used, but because it has grown steadily, without headline-making funding rounds — or, conversely, newsworthy layoffs — the 90-person company doesn’t routinely attract a lot of press attention.
That’s fine with Sims, who we spoke with last week following the most recent bout of bad publicity for Lambda School, a younger rival that has raised $48 million from investors, compared with the $42.5 million that Codecademy has raised over time. Sims says his company is continuing to chug along nicely.
The question, increasingly, is whether that’s ‘nice’ enough for VCs. Indeed, Codecademy — like a lot of startups right now — is in the awkward position of being a smart, solid, steadily but not massively growing business — which raises questions about its next steps.
The last time we’d spoken with Sims, roughly two years ago, Codecademy — which struggled for years with how to produce meaningful revenue — had recently launched two premium products. One of these, Codecademy Pro, helps users who are willing to spend $40 per month (or $240 per year) on the service to learn the fundamentals of coding, as well as develop a deeper knowledge in up to 10 areas, including machine learning and data analysis. Sims says this has taken off, though he declined to share specifics.
A second offering, Codecademy Pro Intensive, that was designed to immerse learners from six to 10 weeks in either website development, programming or data science, has since been dropped.
Sims says the company’s international have meanwhile been growing, with 60 percent of its paying users based in the U.S. and the rest elsewhere, including in India and Brazil. (The need for coding skills “isn’t a U.S.-only phenomenon,” Sims notes.)
Who are these users? He says they tend to fall into one of two buckets: those who are learning a discrete skill set, perhaps to build a website in a pinch, and those who are gainfully employed but looking to climb the ladder or switch jobs and who see Codeacademy as a way to spend a couple of hours a week to develop the skills to get there.
Sims says the payback is typically quick and that its customers easily rationalize the cost of the courses, which are exceedingly affordable as these things go. By way of comparison, some on-premise coding schools charge upwards of $20,000 a year — a big enough expense that in order to make themselves more accessible, they invite students to pay nothing upfront and instead collect a percentage of their salary once they find a job.
Naturally, because Codecademy largely lives online, so, too, do criticisms sometimes about its perceived shortcomings. One customer — a self-described computer science major — authored a thoughtful review in December, writing that “being a programmer is more than simply being able to memorize syntax,” While Codecademy has introduced “thousands to the fundamentals of computer science,” through “addictive bite-sized pieces that are easy to accomplish,” it falls short in helping cultivate a “coders’ mindset,” he wrote.
Either way, enough people are finding value in Codecademy’s vast number of offerings that it recently reached an important milestone — it’s now cash-flow positive — having doubled it revenue last year. Sims is understandably proud of this accomplishment, noting that “there are few [coding platforms] that are growing sustainably and profitably and generating cash that can be invested back into the business.”
Codecademy is enjoying the same tailwinds it has from the start, too. While skepticism has grown around coding schools more broadly, the ability to design, shape, correct, and secure software will only grow more valuable. Receiving a related education that comes affordably and doesn’t require an income-share agreement remains an appealing proposition, too.
In fact, the company is continuing to paint that picture for consumers and, we gather, it’s talking more to enterprises that are starting to offer Codecademy type classes to employees. Though Codecademy already sells classes in volume packs, Sims suggests that a big push in 2020 will involve tie-ups with companies that want to provide what it teaches as a perk.
Whether it intends to paint a picture for investors, too, is another question, one that Sims declined to answer when we asked about fundraising more broadly.
Certainly, follow-on rounds are growing harder to land, as described in our piece last week about “portfolio bloat.” The reason: VCs have raised so much money in recent years that they’re funneling it into new startups faster than ever, too (They need to find the Next Big Thing to return all that capital.)
That’s leaving a lot of solidly run companies to fend for themselves for now.
Given Codecademy’s cash-flow positive status, at least, it can afford to wait.
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Twitter announces a "continue thread" option, a new feature that links tweets together while they are being composed (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)
Twitter announces a “continue thread” option, a new feature that links tweets together while they are being composed — Twitter is rolling out a new feature that makes it easier to thread multiple tweets together. With this change, you can now link tweets together while you compose them.
Canadian online pharmacy, PocketPills has raised $7.35 million as it expands into Quebec
PocketPills, which bills itself as the sole online pharmacy operating in Canada, has raised $7.35 million in new financing as it expands across the country.
Through partnerships with insurers like Pacific Blue Cross the company provides co-insurance reductions for prescriptions. “We have an option for you to come and join our platform just like any pharmacy,” says company co-founder and chief operating officer, Harj Samra.
Samra launched the company in 2018 with Raj Gulia, a fellow proprietor of pharmacies across Canada, and the serial entrepreneur and co-founder of RocketFuel Abhinav Gupta. After RocketFuel’s public offering, Gupta was toying with several ideas for direct to consumer companies when he was approached by Gulia and Samra.
Together the three men launched PocketPills to bring the online pharmacy model to Canada as a way to save money for insurers.
The problem for insurers is that the use of generic drugs in Canada lags behind that of the U.S., says Gupta. “The difference is quite substantial. The U.S is about 90% generic fill rate and in Canada that number is at 70%,” he says.
PocketPills covers everything that a regular Canadian pharmacy would outside of controlled substances and narcotics. The bulk of the company’s prescriptions to date are for medications for chronic conditions.
Now the company is looking to expand across the country, opening fulfillment locations in Nova Scotia and soon in Quebec.
To back that growth and continue its development, PocketPills turned to a large Canadian family office and the investment firm Waterbridge to finance its $7.35 million round.
“PocketPills is timed well for massive value creation in the Canadian health care industry through its technology innovations. It has captured a sweet spot at the intersection of cost (insurers and employers), convenience (patients) and care (chronic diseases),” said Manish Kheterpal, Managing Partner, WaterBridge Ventures, in a statement.
Retail optimization startup Teikametrics raises $15M as it expands beyond Amazon and beyond ads
Teikametrics, a startup that helps retailers optimize their online ad spending, has raised $15 million in additional funding.
The company launched with the goal of helping Amazon sellers advertise more effectively. More recently, it launched a similar partnership with Walmart.
CEO Alasdair McLean-Foreman said that on both platforms, the startup’s Flywheel platform can improve the ad-buying process using retailer data about things like transactions, inventory and pricing.
McLean-Foreman praised Amazon for creating “an incredible closed loop” where “millions of consumers [are] meeting millions of suppliers across the long tail.” And of the other online platforms, he said Walmart is “the one that’s closest to parity.”
He added that by working with Teikametrics, retailers (whether they’re third-party sellers, or brands promoting products that Amazon and Walmart are selling themselves) can optimize their campaigns across both marketplaces, and eventually on other platforms as well.
McLean-Foreman added that the company will be launching products that go beyond advertising later this year. His vision is for Teikametrics to use that same data to create a retail “operating system” that optimize every aspect of a retailer’s business, including inventory and pricing.
“It’s about creating very simple solution to a very, very complicated problem that is much more dynamic and much more complicated than just the ads,” he said.
The Boston-headquartered startup raised a $10 million Series A in 2018. The new round was led by Jump Capital, with participation from Granite Point Capital, Jerry Hausman (an MIT econometrics professor who also serves as a scientific advisor) and Ed Baker (former head of growth at Facebook and Uber).
Teikametrics says it’s working with more than 3,000 brands, including Clarks, Razer, Power Practical, Zipline Ski and Mark Cuban’s Brands. It also recently hired former Amazon ad executive Srini Guddanti as its chief product officer.
Looking at the broader retail and advertising landscape, McLean-Foreman acknowledged, “AI is almost a buzzword,” but he argued, “We are actually AI-first. The product itself is automation, it is intelligent decision-making.”
He added, “Advertising is a huge lever to pull and a really good problem for AI to solve, but I’m super excited to apply those same AI components or solutions to an even bigger problem at the same time.”
Redmi Note 8 Pro base variant receives Rs 1,000 price cut, now costs Rs 13,999
If you’ve been eyeing the Redmi Note 8 Pro but haven’t yet hit the ‘Add to Cart’ button, there’s some good news in store for you. The base variant of the handset has received a price cut of Rs 1,000, which means it now starts at Rs 13,999. For that money, the phone gets 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It’s important to note that Redmi is offering the price cut on only the base variant of the Redmi Note 8 Pro. The Redmi Note 8 Pro is currently available on Mi.com and Amazon.in among other outlets in four colour options, including Shadow Black, Gamma Green, Halo White, and Electric Blue.
The Chinese smartphone manufacturer announced the price slash on its official Twitter account yesterday but did not mention why it is applicable only on the base variant of the phone. The new price currently reflects on Mi.com and Amazon.in. The 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant retains its price tag of Rs 15,999, and the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, Rs 17,999. Redmi is currently offering a Mi Screen Protect package for an extra Rs 699 along with the Redmi Mi 9 Pro.
The Redmi Note 8 Pro was launched late last year and sold through regular limited-period ‘flash’ sales before entering an ‘open’ sale in late December. It is powered by a MediaTek Helio G90T chip. The handset’s screen measures 6.53 inches diagonally and has Gorilla Glass 5 protection. On the back panel, the device has as many as four cameras: a Samsung-developed 64MP sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, a 2MP macro sensor. On the front, there’s a single 20MP camera for selfies. Read our performance review of the Redmi Note 8 Pro here.
Like the Redmi 8 Pro, the Realme 5 Pro received a price cut of Rs 1,000 last month, thereby bringing its starting price down to Rs 12,999. The Realme 5 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chip. Its screen measures 6.3 inches and has a maximum resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. The back panel of the handset is home to a quad camera setup. Realme launched the Realme 5 Pro in India in early September 2019 at a starting price of Rs 13,999. Since then, the handset has been receiving software updates regularly. You can read more about it here.
The #64MPQuadCamBeast #RedmiNote8Pro (6GB+64GB) is now available at a discounted price of ₹13,999. Avail No Cost EMI on selected credit cards. Get yours now from https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo, @amazonIN, Mi Home or Retail Outlets. pic.twitter.com/B2SflOJ6TT
— Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) February 19, 2020;
https://ift.tt/2SHawP9
CCI fails to prove e-commerce marketplaces' exclusive deals with smartphone makers
In a letter, the House Oversight Committee asks Amazon about Ring's partnerships with governments and police depts. and Ring's policies regarding collected data (Alfred Ng/CNET)
In a letter, the House Oversight Committee asks Amazon about Ring's partnerships with governments and police depts. and Ring's policies regarding collected data — Congress is knocking on Amazon's door with questions about its video doorbell company, Ring, and the hundreds of police partnerships Ring has built over the last two years.
Family planning telehealth startup Maven raises $45M Series C from Icon Ventures, Sequoia, others, and launched its Wallet service to manage benefits this year (Cynthia Koons/Bloomberg)
Family planning telehealth startup Maven raises $45M Series C from Icon Ventures, Sequoia, others, and launched its Wallet service to manage benefits this year — Family-planning benefits are often difficult to navigate. A tech company is trying to change that.
Sources detail AI companies' engagement with US FERC as the energy regulator readies a June proposal to speed up data center connections to regional power grids (Politico)
Politico : Sources detail AI companies' engagement with US FERC as the energy regulator readies a June proposal to speed up data cent...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
