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#UK Kier Group seeks new CEO to steer future direction

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Cambridge and Sandy property company Kier Group plc is changing chief executive in a bid to steer a fresh era of growth.

Haydyn Mursell has stepped down with immediate effect after eight years as FD and CEO and the search for a new chief exec is already underway.

As an interim move chairman Philip Cox will act as executive chair working closely with the FD Bev Dew and chief operating officer Claudio Veritiero. They will jointly oversee operations until a new chief executive has been appointed. 

Cox said: “The board believes that, following the completion of the recent rights issue, now is the right time for a new leader to take Kier forward to the next stage of its development. 

“The board would like to thank Haydn for his contribution during eight years, firstly as finance director and then as chief executive.”

The infrastructure services, buildings and developments & housing group also announced a trading update covering the period since its previous update on November 16. It is due to post its half-year results on March 21 but says it is on track to meet FY19 expectation.

During the period, the Infrastructure Services and Buildings businesses won a number of new contract awards and now have 100 per cent visibility of the forecast revenue for FY19 and an order book of more than £10 billion.

Recent key contract awards included the renewal of a three-year c.£70 million utility services deal in the South West and being appointed to three lots on the North West Construction Hub three-year £1.5bn framework.

Also, more than £500m of regional building projects were secured during November and December, including a major office development for Argent at King’s Cross in London, a new research facility for the Pirbright Institute in Surrey, a flagship development for the Royal College of Art and a new hospital for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.  

The balance sheet at December 31 was strengthened following the receipt of the £250m net cash proceeds of the recent rights issue and Kier remains on track to report a net cash position at the year-end (June 30, 2019). 

• PHOTOGRAPH: Outgoing Kier CEO, Haydn Mursell

from Business Weekly http://bit.ly/2HsEdjD

Posted in #UK

#USA To rebuild satellite communications, Ubiquitilink starts at ground level

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Communications satellites are multiplying year by year as more companies vie to create an orbital network that brings high-speed internet to the globe. Ubiquitilink, a new company headed by Nanoracks co-founder Charles Miller, is taking a different tack: reinventing the Earthbound side of the technology stack.

Miller’s intuition, backed by approval and funding from a number of investors and communications giants, is that people are competing to solve the wrong problem in the comsat world. Driving down the cost of satellites isn’t going to create the revolution they hope. Instead, he thinks the way forward lies in completely rebuilding the “user terminal,” usually a ground station or large antenna.

“If you’re focused on bridging the digital divide, say you have to build a thousand satellites and a hundred million user terminals,” he said, “which should you optimize for cost?”

Of course dropping the price of satellites has plenty of benefits on its own, but he does have a point. What happens when a satellite network is in place to cover most of the planet but the only devices that can access it cost thousands of dollars or have to be in proximity to some subsidized high-tech hub?

There are billions of phones on the planet, he points out, yet only 10 percent of the world has anything like a mobile connection. Serving the hundreds of millions who at any given moment have no signal, he suggests, is a no-brainer. And you’re not going to do it by adding more towers; if that was a valid business proposition, telecoms would have done it years ago.

Instead, Miller’s plan is to outfit phones with a new hardware-software stack that will offer a baseline level of communication whenever a phone would otherwise lapse into “no service.” And he claims it’ll be possible for less than $5 per person.

He was coy about the exact nature of this tech, but I didn’t get the sense that it’s vaporware or anything like that. Miller and his team are seasoned space and telecoms people, and of course you don’t generally launch a satellite to test vaporware.

But Ubiquitilink does have a bird in the air, with testing of their tech set to start next month and two more launches planned. The stack already been proven on the ground, Miller said, and has garnered serious interest.

“We’ve been in stealth for several years and have signed up 22 partners — 20 are multi-billion dollar companies,” he said, adding that the latter are mainly communications companies, though he declined to name them. The company has also gotten regulatory clearance to test in five countries, including the US.

Miller self-funded the company at the outset, but soon raised a pre-seed round led by Blazar Ventures (and indirectly, telecoms infrastructure standby Neustar). Unshackled led the seed round, along with RRE Ventures, Rise of the Rest, and One Way Ventures. All told the company is working with a total $6.5 million, which it will use to finance its launches and tests; once they’ve taken place it will be safer to dispel a bit of the mystery around the tech.

“UbiquitiLink represents one of the largest opportunities in telecommunications,” Unshackled founding partner Manan Mehta said, calling the company’s team “maniacally focused.”

I’m more than a little interested to find out more about this stealth attempt, three years in the making so far, to rebuild satellite communications from the ground up. Some skepticism is warranted, but the pedigree here is difficult to doubt; we’ll know more once orbital testing commences in the next few months.

from Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2MqmBDL

#Blockchain Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Global crypto services provider Xapo is moving major operations from its base in Hong Kong to its office in Switzerland. The company is incorporated in the Asian financial hub but that may also change soon due to the friendlier business environment in the Alpine nation.

Also read: Russian Institutions Back Proposal to Let Companies Use Cryptocurrency

Wallet Customer Services to Be Based in Zug

Xapo is a major player in the cryptocurrency industry offering wallet and cold storage services for digital assets as well as a virtual bitcoin debit card. It’s currently headquartered in Hong Kong but it has maintained a presence in Switzerland since 2015, when the company opened an office in the Canton of Zug.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland
Zug, Switzerland

In a move driven by Switzerland’s crypto-friendly regulatory climate, Xapo is now transferring a major portion of its operations to the Swiss Crypto Valley. The decision concerns its non-U.S. bitcoin wallet customer services, while traditional cash accounts will continue to be managed from London.

“It was once thought that Hong Kong was the holy grail of crypto regulations. But it has become more opaque,” Xapo president Ted Rogers told Swissinfo during the World Web Forum in Zurich. The executive further elaborated:

It’s a reality of this industry that you have to be agile and react to regulatory changes all the time. Swiss regulators are smart, interested and sophisticated in dealing with the financial markets … Nothing has changed my belief that Switzerland is the right place for a blockchain or crypto project.

Xapo is incorporated in Hong Kong but Rogers revealed its status is now “an open question.” He did not go into details about what the restructuring would bring to Switzerland but at the moment his company has around 250 employees around the world, while less than 10 are working in its Zug office.

According to a report from last May, Xapo held over 6.25 percent of all BTC in circulation. At the time, when bitcoin core was trading at over $9,000 per coin, the digital cash was worth over $10 billion. It’s believed the cryptocurrency is stored in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps.

Xapo to Offer New Crypto Debit Cards

Switzerland has gradually become a leading European destination for crypto and blockchain businesses. It’s one of several crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the region, along with Malta, Gibraltar, Estonia, and the Isle of Man. That’s largely due to its neutrality, political stability, strong data protection laws, and tradition of financial privacy, as the Swiss outlet notes.

In December, the Swiss government announced a comprehensive strategy for the sector that describes crypto technologies as an important development and aims to build a legal foundation for their implementation. This month, Switzerland’s finance minister Ueli Maurer, known for his positive attitude toward the industry, took over the office of the country’s presidency for a one-year term.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo is among the first companies in the crypto space to recognize the benefits of doing business in the Confederacy. In the interview, its president mentioned Switzerland’s decentralized political system as one of its main advantages. “It’s everything that the U.S. was designed to be, but actually lives up to it,” Ted Rogers said.

His company is also one of the first global providers of financial services related to cryptocurrencies. Its crypto debit card was a popular choice for bitcoin enthusiasts before Visa’s decision to terminate all card programs maintained by Wave Crest in January of last year. Rogers now says Xapo has learned its lesson and plans to offer new Visa and Maestro cards in different regions.

The executive did not provide a timeframe for the launch of the cards. Xapo’s website shows, however, that since October the platform has offered a virtual Visa debit card which is integrated with the Xapo app and can be loaded with BTC. The card is in beta testing and is available only to verified U.S. users in a limited number of eligible states.

Which nation do you consider to be the most crypto-friendly? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock.


At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

The post Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2FIdn5h Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

#Blockchain Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Global crypto services provider Xapo is moving major operations from its base in Hong Kong to its office in Switzerland. The company is incorporated in the Asian financial hub but that may also change soon due to the friendlier business environment in the Alpine nation.

Also read: Russian Institutions Back Proposal to Let Companies Use Cryptocurrency

Wallet Customer Services to Be Based in Zug

Xapo is a major player in the cryptocurrency industry offering wallet and cold storage services for digital assets as well as a virtual bitcoin debit card. It’s currently headquartered in Hong Kong but it has maintained a presence in Switzerland since 2015, when the company opened an office in the Canton of Zug.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland
Zug, Switzerland

In a move driven by Switzerland’s crypto-friendly regulatory climate, Xapo is now transferring a major portion of its operations to the Swiss Crypto Valley. The decision concerns its non-U.S. bitcoin wallet customer services, while traditional cash accounts will continue to be managed from London.

“It was once thought that Hong Kong was the holy grail of crypto regulations. But it has become more opaque,” Xapo president Ted Rogers told Swissinfo during the World Web Forum in Zurich. The executive further elaborated:

It’s a reality of this industry that you have to be agile and react to regulatory changes all the time. Swiss regulators are smart, interested and sophisticated in dealing with the financial markets … Nothing has changed my belief that Switzerland is the right place for a blockchain or crypto project.

Xapo is incorporated in Hong Kong but Rogers revealed its status is now “an open question.” He did not go into details about what the restructuring would bring to Switzerland but at the moment his company has around 250 employees around the world, while less than 10 are working in its Zug office.

According to a report from last May, Xapo held over 6.25 percent of all BTC in circulation. At the time, when bitcoin core was trading at over $9,000 per coin, the digital cash was worth over $10 billion. It’s believed the cryptocurrency is stored in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps.

Xapo to Offer New Crypto Debit Cards

Switzerland has gradually become a leading European destination for crypto and blockchain businesses. It’s one of several crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the region, along with Malta, Gibraltar, Estonia, and the Isle of Man. That’s largely due to its neutrality, political stability, strong data protection laws, and tradition of financial privacy, as the Swiss outlet notes.

In December, the Swiss government announced a comprehensive strategy for the sector that describes crypto technologies as an important development and aims to build a legal foundation for their implementation. This month, Switzerland’s finance minister Ueli Maurer, known for his positive attitude toward the industry, took over the office of the country’s presidency for a one-year term.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo is among the first companies in the crypto space to recognize the benefits of doing business in the Confederacy. In the interview, its president mentioned Switzerland’s decentralized political system as one of its main advantages. “It’s everything that the U.S. was designed to be, but actually lives up to it,” Ted Rogers said.

His company is also one of the first global providers of financial services related to cryptocurrencies. Its crypto debit card was a popular choice for bitcoin enthusiasts before Visa’s decision to terminate all card programs maintained by Wave Crest in January of last year. Rogers now says Xapo has learned its lesson and plans to offer new Visa and Maestro cards in different regions.

The executive did not provide a timeframe for the launch of the cards. Xapo’s website shows, however, that since October the platform has offered a virtual Visa debit card which is integrated with the Xapo app and can be loaded with BTC. The card is in beta testing and is available only to verified U.S. users in a limited number of eligible states.

Which nation do you consider to be the most crypto-friendly? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock.


At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

The post Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2FIdn5h Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

#Blockchain Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Global crypto services provider Xapo is moving major operations from its base in Hong Kong to its office in Switzerland. The company is incorporated in the Asian financial hub but that may also change soon due to the friendlier business environment in the Alpine nation.

Also read: Russian Institutions Back Proposal to Let Companies Use Cryptocurrency

Wallet Customer Services to Be Based in Zug

Xapo is a major player in the cryptocurrency industry offering wallet and cold storage services for digital assets as well as a virtual bitcoin debit card. It’s currently headquartered in Hong Kong but it has maintained a presence in Switzerland since 2015, when the company opened an office in the Canton of Zug.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland
Zug, Switzerland

In a move driven by Switzerland’s crypto-friendly regulatory climate, Xapo is now transferring a major portion of its operations to the Swiss Crypto Valley. The decision concerns its non-U.S. bitcoin wallet customer services, while traditional cash accounts will continue to be managed from London.

“It was once thought that Hong Kong was the holy grail of crypto regulations. But it has become more opaque,” Xapo president Ted Rogers told Swissinfo during the World Web Forum in Zurich. The executive further elaborated:

It’s a reality of this industry that you have to be agile and react to regulatory changes all the time. Swiss regulators are smart, interested and sophisticated in dealing with the financial markets … Nothing has changed my belief that Switzerland is the right place for a blockchain or crypto project.

Xapo is incorporated in Hong Kong but Rogers revealed its status is now “an open question.” He did not go into details about what the restructuring would bring to Switzerland but at the moment his company has around 250 employees around the world, while less than 10 are working in its Zug office.

According to a report from last May, Xapo held over 6.25 percent of all BTC in circulation. At the time, when bitcoin core was trading at over $9,000 per coin, the digital cash was worth over $10 billion. It’s believed the cryptocurrency is stored in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps.

Xapo to Offer New Crypto Debit Cards

Switzerland has gradually become a leading European destination for crypto and blockchain businesses. It’s one of several crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the region, along with Malta, Gibraltar, Estonia, and the Isle of Man. That’s largely due to its neutrality, political stability, strong data protection laws, and tradition of financial privacy, as the Swiss outlet notes.

In December, the Swiss government announced a comprehensive strategy for the sector that describes crypto technologies as an important development and aims to build a legal foundation for their implementation. This month, Switzerland’s finance minister Ueli Maurer, known for his positive attitude toward the industry, took over the office of the country’s presidency for a one-year term.

Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

Xapo is among the first companies in the crypto space to recognize the benefits of doing business in the Confederacy. In the interview, its president mentioned Switzerland’s decentralized political system as one of its main advantages. “It’s everything that the U.S. was designed to be, but actually lives up to it,” Ted Rogers said.

His company is also one of the first global providers of financial services related to cryptocurrencies. Its crypto debit card was a popular choice for bitcoin enthusiasts before Visa’s decision to terminate all card programs maintained by Wave Crest in January of last year. Rogers now says Xapo has learned its lesson and plans to offer new Visa and Maestro cards in different regions.

The executive did not provide a timeframe for the launch of the cards. Xapo’s website shows, however, that since October the platform has offered a virtual Visa debit card which is integrated with the Xapo app and can be loaded with BTC. The card is in beta testing and is available only to verified U.S. users in a limited number of eligible states.

Which nation do you consider to be the most crypto-friendly? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock.


At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

The post Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2FIdn5h Xapo Transfers Key Operations to Switzerland

#Blockchain Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings

Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings

Romania has amended its tax laws, allowing it to start taxing gains from bitcoin investments at a rate of 10 percent. The improved fiscal code legislation categorizes earnings generated from buying and selling cryptocurrencies as “income from other sources” and therefore subject to income tax, local media reports.

Also read: Falcon Private Bank Launches Crypto Wallet With Support for Direct BTC and BCH Transfers

Only Gains From Crypto Investments to Be Taxed

Romanian daily financial newspaper Ziarul Financiar quoted Adrian Benta, a local tax consultant, as saying: “Now, the earnings from bitcoin are taxed and declared in the annual income statement. Only the earnings [or gains, as opposed to revenues] are taxed.”

Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings

Gains from any single transaction which are below 200 Romanian ron (about $50) will not be taxed, the article said. However, investors will pay the 10 percent income tax on crypto earnings that exceed a cumulative 600 ron in a year.

Benta told the Bucharest-based publication that the cryptocurrency tax thresholds, according to the new legislation, were “fair”. He stated:

Before this, we had a more cumbersome procedure in which one had to register as freelancer if he was trading repeatedly. It is now treated as an extraordinary income from other sources.

It is not clear how government will enforce compliance of the self-declared crypto income tax.

Growing Crypto Taxation Trend

The east European country’s nascent bitcoin market was recently rocked by news of the arrest and impending extraditiin of Vlad Nistor, founder and chief executive officer of Coinflux, to the U.S. Nistor, who heads one of Romania’s biggest digital asset exchanges, is facing charges of money laundering, allegedly committed through his trading platform. Coinflux has traded the equivalent of $229 million worth of crypto since it was founded in 2015 and reported turnover of $3.4 million last year.

Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings

Cryptocurrency has become a prime target for governments throughout the world seeking to help themselves to profits from a technology built to resist their control. Romania joins a growing list of governments to roll out crypto tax legislation. Chile announced this week that it will start taxing bitcoin profits in April and that it will monitor individual investors to ensure they are paying the crypto tax at the right level. In Spain, government has drafted a law that seeks to compel investors to declare their crypto asset holdings, partly as a measure to prevent tax evasion.

Spain’s Ministry of the Treasury has since identified 15,000 cryptocurrency investors it is monitoring to prevent tax evasion and money laundering. The ministry has vowed to ensure that the investors pay taxes on capital gains from digital currency transactions and that they declare any other benefits accrued from trading.

What do you think about the growing trend by world governments to tax cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock.


Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com

The post Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2T6dv1y Romania Imposes 10% Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings

#Blockchain Why Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions Are on the Rise

The last six months has witnessed significant growth in the number of businesses and banks launching cryptocurrency custodial services. These solutions give institutional investors peace of mind that their assets are secure, insured, and under the care of a trusted third party, freeing them from responsibility for safeguarding their cryptocurrency.

Also Read: Fidelity Launching Crypto Custody and Trading Services

Recent Crypto Custodianship Launches

Why Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions Are on the RiseThe number of crypto custody solutions being launched is growing rapidly. These services are aimed at institutional investors such as hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries.

According to research by the Bank of New York Mellon, there is increasing demand in the market for a traditional, established custodian to provide secure storage of cryptocurrencies. For many it is the bridge that will support institutional capital moving into the cryptocurrency market. There have been reports of major banks testing and in some cases rolling out crypto custody solutions.

Most recently, Swiss investment bank Vontobel launched the ‘Digital Asset Vault.’ The service allows Vontobel’s clients, which include over 100 banks and wealth managers, to issue instructions for the purchase, custody and transfer of digital assets integrated within their familiar banking infrastructure and regulated environment. The German stock exchange Börse Stuttgart has launched a custody service for digital assets. State Street, Fidelity and Coinbase also offer services. 

Regulation in the U.S. requires advisers to keep client funds with a qualified custodian. Across the pond, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has raised the issue that there is no harmonized definition of safekeeping and record-keeping for ownership of securities. This in turn makes it difficult to apply custodial requirements to a new asset class such as cryptocurrency. ESMA believes that greater clarity around the types of services and activities that may qualify as custodial under EU financial services rules, in a DLT framework, is needed.  

Custodial Services Are for Traditional Financial Banks

Why Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions Are on the RisePaul Puey, CEO of cryptocurrency wallet Edge, explained that while there has been a rapid increase in custody solutions, this trend has been limited to the traditional financial world of banks and funds that don’t leverage any of the utility and value of crypto. 

He said: “This would be akin to 1990s internet companies filing for telephone regulations to build VOIP solutions to replace phone carriers. Nothing very disruptive would come from that. Crypto is unique and powerful because custodians aren’t needed to hold digital value. We can replace institutional crypto investors with non-custodial apps that hold the money for users.”

It can be argued, however, that custody services are critical to the efficient functioning of financial markets. As highlighted above by the SEC and ESMA, these often require regulation in order to protect investors from potential misappropriation of their assets.

Michael Ou, CEO of Coolbitx, explained that regulatory factors will play a big role in driving compliance efforts of digital asset exchanges, particularly those in the U.S. or serving U.S. customers, saying:

Custody providers face a simple fact: KYC/AML compliance is a major time and resource strain. In traditional finance, you will hardly see a single entity offering KYC/AML compliance, a large marketplace of buyers and sellers, custody, and all other services that a single exchange offers now.

He explained that as the market matures, so does the division of labor within the market. Therefore it is far easier for exchanges to work with entities specializing in custody. According to Michael Ou, investors can expect to see custody solutions become a mainstream component of the cryptocurrency industry in the months and years ahead.

What are your thoughts on the growth of crypto custody solutions? Let us know in the comments section below.


Images courtesy of Shutterstock.


Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Why Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions Are on the Rise appeared first on Bitcoin News.

from Bitcoin News http://bit.ly/2sElUxx Why Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions Are on the Rise

#USA Mooncard raises $5.7 million for its expense platform

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French startup Mooncard raised a $5.7 million funding round (€5 million) from Raise Ventures, Aglaé Ventures and business angels. The company provides a service to track and manage your company’s expenses with the help of good old plastic cards.

Corporate credit cards aren’t as widespread in France as in the U.S. and other countries. That’s why fintech startups have been trying to find a way to streamline expenses for French startups.

Mooncard lets you get as many cards as you want for your team. Managers can set different kinds of rules with different limits and validation processes.

Every time you pay with your card, you get a text message with a link. When you tap on the link, you can take a photo of the receipt, add details and submit your expense. Your accounting team can see expenses in real time and share reports with accountants.

Behind the scene, companies create a specific account for expenses and top up that account. Mooncard works with Wirecard for the banking integration.

So far, 1,000 companies are using Mooncard, such as Air France, Vinci, Virtuo, Ledger and others. Companies pay between €13 and €15 per user per month, and Mooncard plans to have 200,000 users within three years.

from Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2FTfFOq

#USA Dosh raises $40M on $300M valuation as its cashback app passes $50M doled out to shoppers

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When it comes to reaching would-be customers today, one of the biggest investments that brands and retailers will make is in advertising, to the tune of nearly $630 billion globally. Now, a startup called Dosh, which offers cash back on purchases, is announcing that it has raised $40 million to take on the advertising industry, with the pitch that its app provides a more targeted and guaranteed way of getting consumers to bite.

The funding — $20 million in equity and $20 million in venture debt — is led by Goodwater Capital and Western Technology Investment. Previous investors PayPal, BAM Capital and Anthem Venture Partners also participated. Sources close to the company confirm that the funding was done on approximately a $300 million valuation. It has raised $96 million in total, including both equity and debt.

“Instead of taking all in equity we decided to split because of the strength of the company at the moment,” said Ryan Wuerch, Dosh’s founder and CEO, in an interview, who said the funding would be used for hiring, business development and technology investment. “We want to be opportunistic.”

It was only nine months ago that Dosh last raised dosh; $44 million on a $241 million valuation. In the interim, the startup has been on a roll — at one point, in the holiday spending period, hitting No. 1 among U.S. shopping apps and clocking in some $50 million in cash back to its users, doubling those returns since last April. It now has 3 million card-linked subscribers and more than 150,000 retailers and brands signed up to its platform.

Up to now, Dosh’s business model has been to forge deals with retailers and brands — partners include Nike, Toms, Gap, Walgreens, Walmart, Target, Jack in the Box and more — and payment card providers like Visa and Mastercard. When a user links up a card, and she or he buys something from the retailers and brands connected with Dosh, the user gets money back. That money can in turn be paid into your bank account, your PayPal account, toward further purchases or to charity. Dosh itself makes money by taking a cut on each transaction, although it does not provide details of its percentage.

Going forward, the idea will be to continue to expand its business along the same lines by building more technology into the platform to make the offers you are getting more targeted to what you might be most likely to buy, and to use the same tech to increase rewards to entice you to buy things that you may be less likely to naturally buy.

The company’s viewpoint is that a direct cash reward is a much stronger driver for retail intent than advertising can ever be, and because of how Dosh links up with card providers, it’s much easier to see how an offer is linked to an actual purchase.

“When you think about advertising over the years, at first all you had was radio and TV and print with little attribution,” Wuerch said. “Now digital gives you clicks and impressions, but true attribution is when you get to the consummation of the purchase, which is what we are able to show. The tech that we built and continue to build enables us to understand consumers.”

Given the billions that are spent on advertising today, even moving the needle a little to get more retailers working with Dosh on more deals could prove very lucrative to the company… and its investors.

“Dosh’s mission is to put billions of dollars of wasted advertising spend directly into consumers’ pockets,” said Chi-Hua Chien, co-founder and managing partner at Goodwater Capital, which is leading its investment in Dosh. “They are the clear leader in the rapidly growing card-linked offers market and we are confident this latest round of funding will accelerate their achievement of that mission.” (And to be clear, there are many others in the same space of offering cash back on purchases, such as Drop and Ebates.)

Offers are specific to people on the platform. As Wuerch explained it, he and I might both get offers for Sam’s Club cash back, but because he visited the store three days ago and is a very regular visitor, whereas I never go there, we may have very different cashback offers on the table.

Loyalty programs have become a strong driver for how people purchase goods and services. Amazon Prime is perhaps the strongest example of how that is being played out in e-commerce: To keep people using Amazon, under one umbrella, Amazon is offering users free and fast shipping on a range of items, plus access to services that ordinary customers will not get, all for a single monthly fee.

Dosh is taking a very different approach, in that it has “no plans” said Wuerch to ever move into e-commerce, instead focusing specifically on physical retail experiences.

“Our goal is to drive consumers into stores, and we have found that the cash stimulus really does create a change in consumer behavior,” he said.

Today, Dosh is only in the U.S., and Wuerch said that international expansion is likely to come in 2020. Whether that will come by way of organic growth or acquisition remains to be seen. In the U.K., for example, Quidco provides a similar cashback experience to users.

from Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2CD04PH

#USA Varsity Tutors acquires Veritas Prep to expand into live online classes

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Varsity Tutors, the online learning platform that launched in 2011, has today announced the acquisition of Veritas Prep.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but, according to the press release, the Veritas Prep team will remain at its Calabasas, CA office and that the product will continue on as a separate brand.

Veritas Prep launched in 2002 with a suite of test prep courses. Over the years, Veritas built out its online live classes as well as a business around admissions consulting. As Varsity Tutors focuses on geographical and product expansion, the Veritas Prep acquisition allows the company to get into live online courses (alongside one-to-one tutoring).

“Over the course of its 17 years, Veritas has built up a lot of expertise in how to deliver exceptional live online classes,” said Varsity Tutors founder and CEO Chuck Cohn. “We looked at a lot of companies out there, and we saw huge potential to really accelerate our own product development cycle by buying that expertise.”

Varsity Tutors originally launched with a platform that connected students with tutors for IRL study sessions and lessons. Over time, that product has transformed to offer fully on-demand digital lessons with tutors via live video chat, complete with whiteboard functionality, doc editing and other tools. Students can also access free online content (sans instructor) through Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools.

Cohn says that the Live Learning platform can connect a student with a tutor and begin a session in as few as 20 seconds, and that more than 75 percent of new customers are opting for online/mobile tutoring instead of in-person.

Beyond expanding the product, Varsity Tutors is also looking to expand the number of subjects it offers to customers. Right now, the company offers more than 1000 different subjects (including traditional learning) with more than 250 subjects available for instant tutoring on the Live Learning platform.

Varsity Tutors has raised a total of $107 million from investors like Learn Capital, CZI, and TCV. This marks the company’s second acquisition, with Varsity Tutors buying First Tutors in the UK in 2018 to kickstart geographic expansion.

The 600-employee company has more than 40,000 tutors on the platform and has provided more than 4 million hours of live one-on-one instruction/tutoring since launch.

from Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2FHj43h