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ExOne this week announced that the U.S. Department of Defense has granted it $1.6 million. It’s one of the Pennsylvania-based metal 3D printing company’s largest government contracts, in service of building a portable 3D printing factory for the front line – essentially a method for troops to fabricate broken and missing parts where the need them the most.
“Over the last two years, we’ve really focused on providing our technology into government-type applications: DoD, NASA, DoE,” CEO John Hartner tells TechCrunch. “Sometimes people talk about disrupting the supply chain and getting decentralized manufacturing. This is decentralized and forward deployed, if you will. Be it an emergency, humanitarian mission or frontlines for a war fighter.”
The money from the grant will specifically go toward R&D and building the first unit.
ExOne is proud to have been awarded a $1.6M U.S. Department of Defense contract to develop a portable self-contained 3D printing “factory” housed in a shipping container. The pod will help reduce inventory and simplify the supply chain. #metal3Dprintinghttps://t.co/jSCef5HuB6 pic.twitter.com/awXhMGrKFp
— ExOne (@ExOneCo) February 16, 2021
The system combines a series of machines with a software layer designed to lower the barrier of entry for use. While some training will be required, the hope is that people will be able to operate the system in the field.
“We’ve ruggedized the products that are going inside,” says Hartner. “There’s an element of software that makes the whole thing easier to use together. You start with scanning. So, there’s a possibility that you print from a cloud-based repository, but that may not be available for whatever reason, so you may have a broken part that you can scan and do some digital repair to the file and print.”
The devices rely on binder jet printing, the core tech behind ExOne’s machines. The system essentially composites powder, layer by layer to build up an object. ExOne expects to deliver the first system by Q3 2022. If all goes well, the parties will discuss further partnerships going forward.
The day before Robinhood goes under the the Congressional hammer, domestic rival Public.com announced this morning that it has closed a $220 million funding round at a $1.2 billion valuation. News of the round was first broken by TechCrunch. Further reporting colored in the lines concerning the investment’s size and valuation range.
Confirming the funding news today, Public added a fresh metric to the mix, namely that it has reached one million members – over the course of just 18 months post-launch, the company was quick to point out.
That means that Public’s backers – its latest round was put together by prior investors, including Greycroft, Accel, Tiger Global, Inspired Capital and others – values the company at around $1,200 per current “member.” Whether or not that feels rich, we leave to you to decide.
But with rising interest in the savings and investing space – some data here — and Robinhood’s revenues growing to a run rate of more than $800 million in Q4 2020 and looking even better at the start of 2021, it’s not hard to see why investors are backing Public. It’s even easier if you believe that Robinhood’s brand has undergone material harm from its woes during the GameStop saga.
The pair, along with a host of other fintech services that offer savings and investing products, have been buoyed by a secular shift in banking away from the physical world (in-person shopping, bank branches, plastic cards) to the digital (neo-banks, ecommerce, virtual cards). Robinhood shook up the trading world with zero-cost investing, fitting neatly into the mobile and virtual banking future that is being built. And Public has taken that model a step further by dropping payment for order flow (PFOF), a method revenue generation in which companies like Robinhood get a small fee for sending their users’ trades to one particular market maker or another.
TechCrunch recently joked that it seems like “there is infinite money for stock-trading startups,” in light of the anticipated Public round, which has now has arrived. Let’s see who is next to take home a big check.
This morning Ally.io, a software startup with a focus on the OKR (objectives and key results, in case you’ve somehow avoided being exposed) goal-setting technique, announced that it has closed $50 million in new capital. The Series C round was led by Green Oaks Capital, Madrona Capital, and its Series B lead, Tiger Global.
Ally raised an $8 million Series A in August, 2019 and a $15 million Series B in October of the same year. The Series C is more than its A and B rounds put together – and doubled.
That Ally raised such a large round really wasn’t too big a surprise. OKR-software rival Gtmhub raised a $30 million Series B earlier this year, and companies in this particular software niche reported rapid-fire growth last year. TechCrunch collected growth metrics from a host of companies competing in the OKR and corporate goal-setting market, including Ally. In 2020, Gtmhub, Perdoo, WorkBoard, and Ally.io all grew in the triple digits.
In a blog post that TechCrunch saw before publication, Madrona investor and Ally backer S. Somasegar noted that “nearly $300 million” has been invested into OKR startups in the last two years. Such rapid growth from so many players in such a competitive space could signal a huge market.
Ally’s latest round makes it clear that investors expect similar growth from the cohort in 2021.
For flavor, we got new growth numbers from Ally.io. Previously the startup had shared growth of 3.3x in 2020. Its CEO Vetri Vellore told TechCrunch in an email that Ally.io’s “revenue has increased by 5x and [has] added over 600 customers” since its Series B, which came around 15 months prior. That’s quick.
It’s the sort of growth that venture investors want to own a piece of. So, even though Vellore told TechCrunch that his company has “most of [its] Series B money in the bank,” it decided to take on more capital “to accelerate further,” to which we’d add because it could.
Ally did not have to twist arms to raise more. Vellore described the round as “extremely competitive” in an email, noting that he had “started the [fundraising] process in early January.” It’s just over mid-February, so the round came together quickly: “Within two weeks of starting the process, we were able to wrap it up,” the CEO wrote, adding that the investment “was heavily oversubscribed due to strong interest from both existing investors and our new investors.”
The market for OKR software, and corporate goal-setting software in general, is proving to be large, and lucrative. Let’s see which rival player is the next to raise.
Facebook has been fined again by Italy’s competition authority — this time the penalty is €7 million (~$8.4M) — for failing to comply with an earlier order related to how it informs users about the commercial uses it makes of their data.
The AGCM began investigating certain commercial practices by Facebook back in 2018, including the information it provided to users at sign up and the lack of an opt out for advertising. Later the same year it went on to fine Facebook €10M for two violations of the country’s Consumer Code.
But the watchdog’s action did not stop there. It went on to launch further proceedings against Facebook in 2020 — saying the tech giant was still failing to inform users “with clarity and immediacy” about how it monetizes their data.
“Facebook Ireland Ltd. and Facebook Inc. have not complied with the warning to remove the incorrect practice on the use of user data and have not published the corrective declaration requested by the Authority,” the AGCM writes in a press release today (issued in Italian; which we’ve translated with Google Translate).
The authority said Facebook is still misleading users who register on its platform by not informing them — “immediately and adequately” — at the point of sign up that it will collect and monetize their personal data. Instead it found Facebook emphasizes its service’s ‘gratuitousness’.
“The information provided by Facebook was generic and incomplete and did not provide an adequate distinction between the use of data necessary for the personalization of the service (with the aim of facilitating socialization with other users) and the use of data to carry out targeted advertising campaigns,” the AGCM goes on.
It had already fined Facebook €5M over the same issue of failing to provide adequate information about its use of people’s data. But it also ordered it to correct the practice — and publish an “amendment” notice on its website and apps for users in Italy. Neither of which Facebook has done, per the regulator.
Facebook, meanwhile, has been fighting the AGCM’s order via the Italian legal system — making a petition to the Council of State.
A hearing of Facebook’s appeal against the non-compliance proceedings took place in September last year and a decision is still pending.
Reached for comment on AGCM’s action, a Facebook spokesperson told us: “We note the Italian Competition Authority’s announcement today, but we await the Council of State decision on our appeal against the Authority’s initial findings.”
“Facebook takes privacy extremely seriously and we have already made changes, including to our Terms of Service, to further clarify how Facebook uses data to provide its service and to provide tailored advertising,” it added.
Last year, at the time the AGCM instigated further proceedings against it, Facebook told us it had amended the language of its terms of service back in 2019 — to “further clarify” how it makes money, as it put it.
However while the tech giant appears to have removed a direct “claim of gratuity” it had previously been presenting users at the point of registration, the Italian watchdog is still not happy with how far it’s gone in its presentation to new users — saying it’s still not being “immediate and clear” enough in how it provides information on the collection and use of their data for commercial purposes.
The authority points out that this is key information for people to weigh up in deciding whether or not to join Facebook — given the economic value Facebook gains via the transfer of their personal data.
For its part, Facebook argues that it’s fair to describe a service as ‘free’ if there’s no monetary charge for use. Although it has also made changes to how it describes this value exchange to users — including dropping its former slogan that “Facebook is free and always will be” in favor of some fuzzier phrasing.
On the arguably more salient legal point that Facebook is also appealing — related to the lack of a direct opt out for Facebook users to prevent their data being used for targeted ads — Facebook denies there’s any lack of consent to see here, claiming it does not give any user information to third parties unless the person has chosen to share their information and give consent.
Rather it says this consent process happens off its own site, on a case by case basis, i.e. when people decide whether or not to install third party apps or use Facebook Login to log into a third-party websites etc — and where, it argues, they will be asked by those third parties whether they want Facebook to share their data.
(Facebook’s lead data supervisor in Europe, Ireland’s DPC, has an open investigation into Facebook on exactly this issue of so-called ‘forced consent’ — with complaints filed the moment Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation begun being applied in May 2018.)
The tech giant also flags on-site tools and settings it does offer its own users — such as ‘Why Am I Seeing This Ad’, ‘Ads Preferences’ and ‘Manage Activity’ — which it claims increase transparency and control for Facebook users.
It also points to the ‘Off Facebook Activity‘ setting it launched last year — which shows users some information about which third party services are sending their data to Facebook and lets them disconnect that information from their account. Though there’s no way for users to request the third party delete their data via Facebook. (That requires going to each third party service individually to make a request.)
Last year a German court ruled against a consumer rights challenge to Facebook’s use of the self-promotional slogan that its service is “free and always will be” — on the grounds that the company does not require users to literally hand over monetary payments in exchange for using the service. Although the court found against Facebook on a number of other issues bundled into the challenge related to how it handles user data.
In another interesting development last year, Germany’s federal court also unblocked a separate legal challenge to Facebook’s use of user data which has been brought by the country’s competition watchdog. If that landmark challenge prevails Facebook could be forced to stop combining user data across different services and from the social plug-ins and tracking pixels it embeds in third parties’ digital services.
The company is also now facing rising challenges to its unfettered use of people’s data via the private sector, with Apple set to switch on an opt-in consent mechanism for app tracking on iOS this spring. Browser makers have also been long stepping up action against consentless tracking — including Google, which is working on phasing out support for third party cookies on Chrome.
There’s a low energy solution to home heating and cooling sitting right underneath most houses, but until recently no one has been able to tap it.
That solution is geothermal energy, using the earth’s own heat to provide temperature controlled comfort to homeowners is the mission that Kathy Hannun set for herself while working at Google X (the skunkworks division within Google) and it’s been her goal when she spun out her technology as the startup Dandelion Energy.
Her company is now helmed by chief executive Michael Sachse, a former entrepreneur in residence at the venture firm NEA and a longtime executive at the energy management company, Opower, so Hannun can focus on pushing the technology she developed forward.
Helping her advance the geothermal tech is a new $30 million cash infusion from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the fund backed by Bill Gates and a slew of other billionaires to provide financing that can commercialize the new sustainable technologies needed to help the world respond and adapt to global warming.
In Dandelion’s case that means driving down the cost of installing geothermal systems from over $50,000 to roughly $18,000 to $20,000. The company partnered with Con Edison back in 2019 to offer Westchester homeowners $5,000 off their installations, and that project accounts for some of the 500 homes that are already using Dandelion’s system.
While the number of installations is small Sachse and Hannun have ambitious goals and some other strategic financial backers that may help them meet their targets.
Chiefly, the U.S. homebuilding giant Lennar is an investor in the company’s latest round and their presence on the cap table could mean big things if Dandelion can get its systems installed in any planned new construction.
“Our goal is to be able to do 10,000 homes per year. When we think about getting to 10,000 homes per year what that requires is for us to expand geographically,” Sachse said. “Lennar, which depending on how you measure it either the second largest or the largest homebuilder — they are not just an investor but we are working with them on developing communities.”
For now Dandeliion’s technology is only used by folks in very specific situations who could loosely be described as upper middle class.
“We think of our typical customer as someone who is interested in making a sound economic choice. They’re in their 40s or 50s, with a college degree and good credit,” Sachse said. “Living in a home that is 2000 to 2500 square feet that is by definition a little bit removed from the traditional urban infrastructure. Upper middle class product in the same way that solar has found traction in homes like that.”
Currently, the company focuses on the retrofit market and is confining its operations to the Northeast where there are roughly 5.6 million homes that use fuel oil or propane where installing a Dandelion system can make economic sense given the current costs for the tech.
“The core target customer is someone who is using fuel oil or propane to heat their home. The reason to target them is because we think the payback or them is most attractive,” Sachse said. “Typically the customers who are investing in a Dandelion system and paying cash are going to see a five to seven year payback. Customers who are financing are going to see a lower energy bill from day one.”
Dandelion’s innovations touch on three different aspects of making geothermal systems work, the drill, the heat exchanger, and the monitoring and management system for the heating and cooling system once it’s installed.
First, the company designed a drill that could give installation operations a smaller footprint. Installers need about 7 feet of space to drill down the 300 feet to 500 feet the company needs to access the 55 degree temperatures necessary to create the Dandelion heat loop.
The company then connects that loop to a novel heat exchanger located in a mechanical room of the house. That heat pump is connected to several sensors allowing the company to integrate with things like the Nest Thermostat to enable homeowners to have more control of the temperature n their homes through their smart phones.
Dandelion Energy heating and cooling system. Image Credit: Dandelion Energy
Dandelion’s system also includes a smart remote monitoring system that collects and stores data. The data is then uploaded about every 10 seconds and is monitored by Dandelion engineers, the company said. This means any potential problems will be caught immediately and a repair man can be sent to the homeowner’s house before the customer is even aware there might be an issue.
The company’s executives argue that massive adoption of their home heating and cooling systems represent a vital part of any energy transition away from fossil fuels, chiefly because electric heating systems are inefficient.
“If we had a grid that was large enough to renewable supply electricity and not worry about the efficiency of the electricity demand we’d be in an amazing spot,” Sachse said. “Realistically to electrify the grid we need to triple our capacity while becoming more efficient. I don’t see how we get there without as part of that journey finding more sustainable ways to heat our homes.”
Geothermal home heating would certainly go a long way toward stabilizing the grid, according to Hannun
“Already air conditioners that are more efficient are putting enormous strain on the grid. Drives fuel use and transition challenges. The benefits of geothermal because of that connection to the ground is really moving out the demand peak,” she said. “The technology has a lot of benefits that it confers to the grid and help it operate much better. Which is one reason why we’ve seen utilities in New York embrace this technology and really become its champion.”
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is wholeheartedly on board with Dandelion’s solution.
“Through a combination of technology, data and operations, Dandelion is making geothermal heating and cooling cost-effective for the residential market, and working to solve a critical need for homeowners and our energy ecosystem,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, in a statement. “Dandelion’s geothermal heat pumps provide an efficient electric heating and cooling system that lowers the cost of heating and cooling for homeowners, no matter their region or climate. We’re looking forward to working with Dandelion as they look to fully displace fossil fuels from the home’s heating and cooling systems.”
