How can businesses be as strategic as possible when choosing a developer who will take the
time to understand their business and have the skills to stay competitive?

Building custom software versus buying a SaaS solution

When organizations need software to automate a process, the easiest solution is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). There are hundreds, if not thousands, of SaaS products on the market to automate nearly every aspect of your business, from accounting to project management to sales. SaaS products are quick to implement, affordable, and easy to use.

The downside? You’re limited to SaaS functionality built for everyone and not specifically for you. Your business workflows must fit into the SaaS technology rather than the technology customized to your business requirements and can interfere with the way your employees perform daily tasks and inhibit your unique strategies. SaaS is often the most affordable option at the expense of flexibility. A SaaS application built for the masses can only do so much. A custom application can do anything you need. It lets you own the product allows for growth and additional features while giving you a competitive edge.

Become more efficient and more productive by building what employees need rather than compelling them to work with limited SaaS functionality. Organizations might hesitate over the initial investment and the questionable return on that investment. Still, a custom solution will often prove to be much more cost-effective in the long run and can even make you money.

Custom, like SaaS, is not a fit for every case. There are plenty of SaaS products on the market that fit basic requirements or work as short-term stepping stones. The decision to go custom ultimately comes down to your specific needs. There’s no need to shift if a one-size-fits-all solution works for your team, but if you are constantly running into roadblocks in your off-the-shelf solution or have complex processes, custom could be your solution.

What makes a custom software solution be compelling?

Hours saved on team effort and time spent on a specific project. If your processes are highly customized, it’s reasonable to assume your software would also need to be. Instead of requiring teams to change the way they work, they can define the most efficient workflow in their software requirements.

Increased opportunity for customer acquisitions. You can build your strategies into your workflows using custom software to give your organization a competitive edge using tools that benefit customers. Perhaps your strategy has faster onboarding, better customer service, or a more personal approach. All these strategies can be built into custom software rather than limited by the same SaaS workflows used by all your competitors.

Intellectual property. With custom solutions, your organization drives the outcome, and you own the codebase, and it becomes your intellectual property. You no longer have a solution if your SaaS application goes out of business. With custom software, you own the solution.

Custom software needs a skilled team to build it. A competent development team requires several factors and solutions —technical, financial, and even cultural. Together, you work towards improving business workflows, revenue, and growth. Knowing what you need will help you describe what you’re looking for with prospective partners, compare skill sets, and ultimately decide the best fit for your project. Because a custom software solution gives organizations a competitive advantage in their industry – the caliber of developer talent needed to fit the bill may be more difficult to find than you realize. Custom software developers can offer a molded workflow that meets client needs and supports employee preferences. Still, they also need to have experience troubleshooting, managing enterprise projects, and building rapport with you when (at times) you may not know what you want or need.

Here are four tips to keep in mind when searching for the perfect partner:

They Need To Understand Your Business Needs

You understand the nuts and bolts of your business, but the development agency does not. Very few developers will take the time to understand your workflows step by step. They will code an application based on the requirements you tell them. If you are non-technical yourself, you may not even understand what you are asking for until the product doesn’t align with your vision. The right partner will bridge the gap between technology and your business requirements. They will ask questions not just on the technical specifications but also on what is driving these workflows. The development firm must share the same level of competence and depth of experience to understand your project’s technical and business considerations.

They Should Anticipate Long-Term Project Needs

Since custom software is more flexible and scalable, the partner you choose must take the time to understand your unique business requirements and the way you work. They must build scalable solutions so that you can always make changes as your organization grows and anticipate any pitfalls so that technology is no longer an issue in your growth. Finding the right partner who knows what it takes to build a solution to support future services proactively rather than reactive is critical. The agency and development team will need to be a quick thinker with experience selling and making decisions around software modifications.

You Should Understand that Top Talent is in High Demand

Gone are the days you could hire a single developer to handle all your IT needs. Most projects require a team with a diverse set of skills and expertise. “Full-stack” developers are as rare and mythical as unicorns. Not only that, but demand for software engineers is higher than we’ve ever seen before. Amazon alone has more than 20,000 available tech roles. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, more than 1.2 million unique job postings were in early September. This translates to higher developer costs to get quality services.

What About Hiring Internally?

That topic could be an entire article by itself. Hiring internally for your software needs can be a great solution but comes with its own host of challenges. Without diving into too much detail, you’d need to consider: a CTO, what kinds of development resources you’d need, UI/UX resources, proper implementation and production processes, and maintenance and security procedures. This is more challenging if you are non-technical. While building a successful internal development team is entirely possible, it can be a significant investment of time to get them up and running. Ultimately, this decision boils down to your specific business needs.

A Strong Partner

The goal of choosing the right development partner goes beyond the project alone. An ideal partner understands your company’s larger mission, is aligned with your future goals, and collaborates with you as a ‘partner in crime’ to achieve these goals and realize your vision. As in any relationship, a strong partner is characterized by transparency and trust related to all aspects of project development, efficient ongoing communication, and clarity around expectations at every stage. Most of all, the developers you work with must take the time to understand your requirements and the way your business flows, so they can build a solution that gives you a competitive edge and makes you money.

The post Top Considerations When Choosing a Developer for Bespoke Projects appeared first on Grit Daily News.

We have raised $60 million to expand our global tax solutions. Investors in the Series B funding round led by Coatue include Dawn Capital, Index Ventures, OMERS Ventures, FJ Labs, Moving Capital.

The funding, which comes just six months after a $20m Series A round, underlines the success we have had in transforming the way digital companies including Uber, Zoom, Booking.com, Spotify, Teachable and Remote.com stay tax compliant. Our platform is the first digital tax solution with global coverage, providing a plug-and-play modular platform that helps businesses convert a costly and complex process into an automatic and seamless one. Using a simple API solution, we determine and calculate the right amount of tax a business should pay, in the right place, at the right time. This results in greater profitability for customers who can reduce their operating costs and increase their tax compliance at the same time.

A one-stop solution for global digital businesses

Fonoa was founded by three Uber alumni – Davor Tremac, Filip Sturman, Ivan Ivankovic – who experienced first-hand how difficult it is to correctly calculate and report taxes to authorities throughout the world. The existing crop of tax software solutions have not been built for the digital age and require clients to bring on armies of implementation consultants on projects that could take many months to complete. Equally, software developers for these solutions don’t always understand how digital-first businesses operate around the world, meaning customers can’t quickly adapt a tool to their needs in specific countries. They built Fonoa from the ground up and developed a plug-and-play platform that allows customers to automate all relevant aspects to ensure tax compliance globally.

Where previously customers would purchase goods and services within their own country and the company they purchased from would send the VAT to the Government, the growth in companies selling their products and services worldwide has seen governments lose substantial amounts of tax revenue. The OECD estimates that countries around the world on average struggle to collect 44% of these taxes, leaving them with a massive VAT gap in their budgets each year which they are desperate to close. As a result, more than 90 countries across the globe have introduced complex tax rules for digital transactions, shifting the liability to businesses and placing an increased responsibility on them to calculate, collect and remit their taxes globally.

We take the hassle out of all these changes and makes it easy and efficient for digital-first companies to understand, report and abide by the tax obligations in every country they work in. Our platform verifies the tax status of the buyer and seller, calculates the correct tax to charge and creates a locally compliant invoice after a transaction takes place, while also providing real-time reporting to a country’s government.

E-commerce boom increases demand

The demand for our services has only increased – with the company experiencing 7x revenue growth across 2021 – as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a transformative shift in e-commerce shopping habits. With taxes part of almost every online payment, more and more businesses are set to benefit from our platform, as online payments are expected to reach $8.5tn in 2022.

To serve this demand, we will use the funding to improve the features of our product and continue our global expansion. We will also launch new products in the next 12 to 18 months. To do this, we – the company which has increased its headcount by 5x in the last 12 months to 110 employees across 20 countries and 35 nationalities – will double in size by the end of the year with a focus on engineering and sales. With new employees joining from companies such as Airbnb, Netflix, Meta, EY, Deloitte and PwC, we will be able to embed this knowledge and tailor our platform even further to suit more business models and industries including SaaS, the gig economy and content creation.

The original announcement can be found on Fonoa’s website.

The post Fonoa Looks to Expand Its Global Tax Automation Platform with $60M In Funding appeared first on Grit Daily News.

We asked Valiot CEO Federico Crespo about this company and the growing role of AI in manufacturing.

Tell us a little of yourself and Valiot

Sure, my name is Federico Crespo. I am the CEO of the operations/manufacturing AI Valiot. We manage artificial intelligence for major suppliers like Heineken, John Deere, Metalsa, and more. From a young age I was exposed to inefficiencies within the manufacturing industry.

How has Heneken’s manufacturing benefited from Valiot

In the Summer of 2021, Heineken became the first major manufacturer to implement Valiot, and with incredible results. Since starting their partnership with Valiot, Heineken has reported a 25% Cycle Reduction Time, 17 % In Process Inventory Reduction, and a 5% Throughput Brewery Increase. Valiot’s data monitors assured BBT and filtration time were reduced in all cycles. Brewing capacity also increased significantly per month. The migration to digital has enabled Heineken México to have a real-time visualization of the bottling lines and filtering conditions in each batch.

What excites you about the future of AI

It’s super exciting to see all the capabilities that AI and robotics have. However, it’s a bit too early to know how these capabilities will develop in the next 10-20 years. AI is reminiscent of the early nineties of the internet, with infinite potential for growth, so it’s amazing to be part of it. It feels good to be present for these developments not just as a spectator, but also as a player.

What are some challenges you see for the future of AI

At the same time, there are certain concerns that remain about the future of AI. Access to education in math and computer science will have to be heavily expanded for people to remain competitive in the job market. In this sense, job extinction is a major concern. New technology evidently eliminates a lot of jobs, but it creates new, more productive jobs as well. In this light, it will be all the more important to invest in comprehensive coding education for children in order to reduce barriers to entry into this job market and get kids engaged in a time where people’s attention spans are shrinking.

How has Valiot changed the manufacturing industry?

We have proven false the notion that software is difficult to implement in an old school industry. In fact, AI-based software will likely be the key to keeping these industries relevant. Valiot recently spoke with Texas government officials about its potential to bolster statewide growth, reshoring, and Texas’s overall GDP. Connecting these two ecosystems is a unique opportunity that has the possibility for mutual benefit. Valiot’s team empowers factory operators to make use of the software independently, adjusting with little to no learning curve. Our approach is factory-friendly and time-saving across all industries.

How Could Valiot Change the World?

We are disrupting how operations are being executed in manufacturing facilities and providing AI capabilities to operators who haven’t even heard of AI in their lives. Our goal is to inspire growth not just for factories, but for their operators. We are transitioning away from how software companies used to implement new tech, which was extremely aggressive for factories and their employees. In addition, if you believe in free market competition, our tech is going to drastically reduce the cost of living for everyone. We’ll also reduce the carbon footprint from the manufacturing world.

How does Valiot implement Digital Twin Technology?

Valiot’s product ValueChainOS uses and analyses data from different sources to simulate value chain conditions. This helps companies better understand their production requirements and create actionable items regarding what and when to buy, produce, and more importantly, when to change. For example, they were able to help a chemical factory reduce costs and optimize inventory balance via the systems’ Smart Scheduler and Digital Twin interface. Using the digital twin allows owners to understand and predict how the factory is going to behave, and identify problems before they occur. Not only are production cycle times, manufacturing costs, and utility consumption all drastically reduced, but the UX of the application allows for clear and real-time communication between stakeholders.

The post How Valiot Has Changed North American Manufacturing appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Changes in the workforce

One of the most significant changes since the pandemic’s start is the increased incidence of remote work. The crisis prompted a sudden exodus from communal workplaces and offices, with millions of employees swapping their desks at work for their dining room tables or spare bedrooms. Some employers have encouraged employees to return to work, but others have embraced more flexible working models, including working from home and hybrid models. 

Changes in the workforce can offer opportunities for businesses, but they can also present challenges. There are chances to save money, reduce expenses and boost team morale through enhanced flexibility, but it can also be difficult to manage teams in different places. One of the most important factors for employers is the impact on individuals. Studies suggest that up to 80% of employees wanted to continue working from home after restrictions were lifted. For some employees, however, returning to the office presented opportunities to boost productivity and enjoy the social side of work. 

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-white-crew-neck-t-shirt-using-silver-laptop-computer-5318976/

Financial challenges

The pandemic was costly for organizations across multiple sectors. Businesses lost money through falling sales and venue closures, and since the pandemic, inflation has risen, and the cost of utilities, materials, and supplies has increased. A record number of corporate giants lost money in 2020, and small businesses were lost across all industries. For companies already struggling to stay afloat, balancing the books is one of the toughest tasks. 

Tackling financial issues involves two key elements. To boost profits, businesses need to be able to increase their income and keep expenses as low as possible. Running a successful business often relies on being flexible and adaptable. The Covid pandemic highlighted the benefits of agility, with forward-thinking companies and individuals able to capitalize on new trends and an increase in the demand for certain products and services. Being adaptable can help businesses to generate sales and expand their client base, but crucially, it can also open doors in terms of cutting costs. Switching to remote work, for example, reduces staff expenses and could lead to significant savings on office rental fees. 

One of the silver linings of the pandemic is the realization that businesses can operate more efficiently by streamlining operations and exploring new ways of working. Hiring financial planners and consultants is beneficial for company directors and team leaders who want to achieve more for less, keep their finances in check, facilitate growth and explore opportunities in terms of restructuring or investing. There is no quick fix for financial pressures in the aftermath of the pandemic, but there are ways to recover and prosper. 

Supply issues

The pandemic caused widespread disruption and delays for businesses and their customers. Covid restrictions, facility closures, reduced capacities, and travel bans meant that it was increasingly difficult to move goods around and deliver products from A to B. Studies suggest that around a third of businesses in retail and manufacturing experienced disruption as a result of global supply chain issues in 2020/2021. There have been improvements since restrictions were lifted, and it has become easier to travel around and transport goods. Still, it could take time to achieve pre-pandemic levels of performance and efficiency. There may still be shortages of some products and materials, especially as Covid backlogs have been exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. 

Staff shortages

The pandemic resulted in many employees losing their jobs or switching careers. In the hospitality industry, for example, employees left their jobs because cafes, restaurants and bars, and entertainment venues closed, meaning businesses didn’t need staff. The travel sector was also heavily impacted, with airports running very low capacity and planes grounded. Now, the demand for services is increasing, and organizations don’t have the employees they need to deliver to their customers. The challenge is to find staff as quickly as possible, provide training and offer services to customers before they lose interest and the demand falls. Solutions include recruitment drives, fast-tracked hiring and training processes, and offering flexible working arrangements and higher salaries, which make jobs more appealing to prospective employees. 

Image from https://pixabay.com/photos/hiring-recruitment-career-business-2575036/

The post-pandemic world is rife with challenges for businesses. There are obstacles to overcome, but there are also opportunities to capitalize on new trends and embrace new ways of working. 

The post What Can Businesses Do To Tackle Post-Pandemic Challenges? appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Via Pexels

1. The Impact On The Business World

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a sharp increase in entrepreneurship. In addition, the pandemic has forced many people to reevaluate their careers and start their own businesses.

There are several reasons for this uptick in entrepreneurship. First, the pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty in the job market. Many people have lost their jobs or are at risk of losing their jobs due to the economic downturn. This has led many people to start their own businesses so they can be in control of their own careers.

Second, the pandemic has made it difficult for people to advance in their careers. With so many businesses shutting down or reducing operations, getting promoted or moving up in a company has become harder. This has led many talented individuals to start their own businesses where they can be their own bosses and control their own success.

Third, the pandemic has forced many people to reevaluate their priorities. With so much uncertainty in the world, many people realize that they need to focus on what is truly important to them. For many people, this means starting their own businesses to have flexibility and freedom to do the things most important to them.

Fourth, the pandemic has opened the eyes of many. Business owners are no longer able to force employees to work long hours in the office. With so many people working from home, they realize they can have a successful career without sacrificing their personal lives. This is leading to a new wave of employees demanding to work from home and have a better work-life balance.

Finally, the pandemic has made it clear that the traditional business model is no longer sustainable. With so many businesses struggling to survive, it is clear that a new approach is needed. This is leading to a surge in innovation as people look for new and creative ways to do business.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the business world and has led to a sharp increase in entrepreneurship. This is a positive development as it will lead to more innovation and creativity in the business world. In addition, it will create new opportunities for talented individuals to pursue their dreams and start a business.

2. The Impact On Entrepreneurship

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on entrepreneurship. The number of new businesses has increased dramatically as people look for ways to control their careers and pursue their passions.

This is a positive development as it will lead to more innovation and creativity in the business world. It will also create more opportunities for people to achieve their goals and dreams.

The pandemic has also harmed entrepreneurship. Many businesses have been forced to close due to the economic downturn. This has created a lot of uncertainty for people who are thinking about starting their own businesses.

However, the overall effect of the pandemic on entrepreneurship is positive. The increased number of new businesses being started will offset the losses caused by the closure of some existing businesses.

The pandemic has also created a need for new products and services that did not exist before. This provides a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to start businesses that can fill this need. If you want to start your passion project, there’s no better time than now. To get started, you need to ensure that you do your research and speak to naming companies, marketers, suppliers, and other professionals you may need to make your business dreams a reality.

There are many challenges that entrepreneurs will face in the coming years, but the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for them to grow and thrive.

Via Pexels

3. The Future Of The Business World

The pandemic has forced businesses to change the way they operate. Some of these changes will be temporary, while others will likely become permanent.

One of the most significant changes in the move towards digitalization. Many businesses have been forced to digitize their operations in order to survive. This trend is likely to continue after the pandemic ends.

Another change that is likely to occur is the rise of remote work. Many people have been forced to work from home during the pandemic. This has led to an increase in the popularity of remote work. As a result, it is likely that more businesses will allow their employees to work remotely in the future.

The pandemic has also had an impact on the way businesses are funded. Before the pandemic, most businesses were funded by traditional means such as bank loans and venture capital. However, the pandemic has led to a decrease in the availability of these funds. As a result, many businesses have turned to alternative funding sources such as crowdfunding and government loans.

It is clear that the pandemic has had a profound impact on the business world. Moreover, the changes that have occurred are likely to shape the future of business.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how companies do business and employees see their careers. A work-life balance has never been more of a priority than it is now, and employers who want to succeed need to change their policies to accommodate this new reality. The rise in entrepreneurship is a positive development that will lead to more variety, larger opportunities, and creativity in the business world. However, there are many challenges that entrepreneurs will face in the coming years. The future of business is uncertain, but the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for businesses to grow and thrive.

The post How Business Is Changing Due To The Growth In Entrepreneurship: The Global Pandemic appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Pixabay CC0 License

The world as we know it has undergone unprecedented change in the past few years. New business landscapes have been evident during the Covid years, not least when looking at the modern workforce. Their evolution has been even faster 

While the pandemic can be viewed as a great accelerator, it is far from the only contributing factor. A generational shift has been equally influential in creating a new workforce. As baby boomers edge closer to retirement, we now have the most tech-savvy and progressive workforce of all time. And its presence can be felt across all industries.

But what exactly does the new workforce look like and how should business owners respond? Let’s find out more by analyzing some of the most important issues.

A Generation Of Conscientious Workers

For many years, most workers were focused solely on one goal: money. Not anymore.

Feeling underpaid remains the primary reason why the Great Resignation is still not over. In fact, 20% of workers still intend to quit their job in 2022 despite the fact that millions have already done this over the past 12-18 months. While important, money isn’t the only driving force.

Studies show that over 70% of workers want to work for sustainable companies. Research also shows that workers prefer employers that are committed to supporting the causes they care about. Likewise, employees often demand acceptance while employers are advised to embrace diversity. Aside from supporting the workforce, it helps customers resonate with the brand.

In short, workers are now more aware of social and environmental challenges. They also realize that businesses are central to reversing the damage caused to nature. It can range from actively working in data science careers that make a difference to just working for responsible firms. Either way, SMEs must try to cultivate a culture that encourages this. Otherwise, they will not attract the best talent.

The Demand For Flexible Working

While modern workers are perhaps more caring about global issues, it doesn’t mean that they overlook their needs. Especially when it comes to the demand for versatile workspaces.

The pandemic opened millions of eyes to the benefits of working from home. In fact, one in three workers threatened to quit rather than return to the office back in 2021. Many of them followed through on that promise. Meanwhile, the global workforce as a whole now actively seeks WFH and hybrid working opportunities.

Furthermore, many workers now seek flexibility with their schedules, paid vacations, and more. People have realized that a work-life balance is essential. And will now actively prioritize the chance to spend quality time with their loved ones. However, happy workers are shown to be 13% more productive. So, business owners will be rewarded for providing the perfect backdrop for their teams.

Without flexibility, many employees will quit or even look to become digital nomads. This portion of the workforce has grown significantly, with the average worker spending six months in each location. It is perhaps the biggest indicator that workforces now crave work positions that facilitate a better quality of life.

Pixabay CC0 License

A Workforce Focused On Upskilling Rather Than Experience

The experience was once the catalyst for climbing the corporate ladder. It is another aspect of business that has witnessed a significant change in recent times.

Computers, automation, and emerging technologies continue to play an increasingly key role. Consequently, employees are tasked with showing creativity and innovation. However, their critical thinking can only translate to productivity if they have the technical skills to match. As such, continued development is the only way to retain relevance.

Experience does still count for a lot in some circles. Still, the fact that everything from manufacturing to order fulfillment has changed cannot be ignored. Every aspect of collaboration and using Smart tech has evolved, which is why digital dexterity is king. Upskilling is now the priority for 60% of leadership and development teams. Workers are understandably eager to capitalize.

Incorporating modern tech features is now often the fastest and most efficient way to get results. Ultimately, that boosts a company’s bottom line. When push comes to shove, most employers will now favor an inexperienced pro that can get results. It’s better than someone who still uses an outdated concept or strategy. Not least because 90% of startups fail. Owners have to protect their ventures and themselves.

A Growing Expectation For Employers To Understand Their Needs

Great employees are the best asset at any employer’s disposal. That hasn’t changed.

What has changed, however, is the fact that employees expect respect as well as mutually beneficial agreements. For example, 93% of employees want easy-to-complete staff training and will happily invest in upskilling. However, they will only sacrifice their time if it supports their hopes of climbing the career ladder or earning a salary increase.

Similarly, most people are happy for employers to track more data than ever before. Studies show that 16%of companies use advanced tech to monitor their employees for productivity purposes. Most workers are OK with this but will expect employers to take responsibility with issues like workplace bullying. Likewise, staff perks and break room facilities are on the list of expectations for most companies.

Employees also need to feel that their employers ‘get them’. Reported mental health cases have soared in recent years. As such, investing in mental health first aid can be considered a major priority. A host of additional steps can be taken by employers, such as introducing feedback sessions to show workers that they care. It creates a more open and transparent atmosphere across the company.

And it will only keep growing

The level of change seen over the past three years has been unprecedented. But the shift had started before then and it will continue over the years to come. A younger generation of workers has a different mindset compared to those of previous eras. Meanwhile, the growing reliance on tech will only move in one direction.

For employers and employees alike, it is a very exciting time indeed. But only if you embrace the change.

The post The Changing Face Of A Modern Workforce & What It Means For Business Owners appeared first on Grit Daily News.

YuLife originally made a name for itself in its home market of the U.K. for its new approach to the provisioning of life insurance: Yes, sell a policy that provides financial security to your people in the event of your death, but do so with a focus on improving the policyholder’s current life with wellness opportunities and encourage use of that with gamification — a model that not only is aimed at benefitting the policyholders more, but increases engagement on the platform and provides a complementary revenue for YuLife, which offers deals on the wellness services.

Its idea took off — it is now used by more than 500 businesses, including Co-op, Del Monte, Jaguar Land Rover, Santander and CapitalOne, which in turn provide plans to their employees, one of three of whom engage on the app daily. On the heels of that, now the company is announcing that it has raised $120 million to expand the concept. Today, YuLife covers group life insurance, critical illness protection and income protection, but it is now rapidly expanding to new categories like dental and health, as well as financial services (pensions being one example of a category that has a strong affinity with life insurance), as well as to new markets like the U.S.

The funding, a Series C, is bringing a new strategic investor on board, Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, which is leading the round, along with participation from previous investors Creandum, LocalGlobe, Target Global, Latitude, Anthemis, OurCrowd, Notion, MMC and Eurazeo.

CEO and co-founder Sammy Rubin tells us that this latest fundraise values the company at $800 million. For some context on that figure, when YuLife more recently raised money before this — a Series B of $70 million in 2021 — it was valued at $346 million.

That is a decent jump considering the current climate. Many tech companies are finding it hard to raise rounds, and when they are doing so valuations are definitely getting buttoned down (and in a number of cases seeing down rounds). And insurtech specifically is definitely not being spared: On the heels of a boom during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, insurance technology funding in Q1 2022 was 50% lower than a year ago, and Q2 is shaping up to be even slower, according to research from Dealroom.

Part of the reason for YuLife’s bump is that the company itself has continued to grow through the slowdown.

Rubin tells me that its customers — it sells only directly to organizations in a B2B model, who in turn provide life insurance to their employees as part of larger benefits programs — have grown 4x in the last year (not as many as the year before, which was 10x, but still growing), with revenues up fivefold and coverage now totaling $50 billion versus $15 billion a year ago. Close to 50% of its customers are new to the platform, he said, and in doing so is expanding the scope of those that are considering it as a worthwhile benefit for their employees.

“These are companies that had never had life insurance before,” Rubin said, noting that they are attracted not just “by the whole life insurance benefit, but the holistic platform around it.”

That holistic platform is an interesting twist on the basic concept of what life insurance can be about.

The app is built by veterans of the gaming industry and is designed around the concept of different natural environments such as forest and mountains, which YuLife collectively terms its “Yuniverse.”

Within each of these environments, users are encouraged to walk, cycle, meditate and do other activities to get around their environments in a healthy way, while at the same time being able to compare their progress against other co-workers. As with a lot of gaming these days, it is a degree of personalization in everyone’s experience: One person leaning into one activity over another seems to produce different subsequent scenarios.

Along with this, users are offered discounts on third-party products to further engage with the game within YuLife, which could include a subscription to meditation app Meditopia, FitBit and Garmin devices, and more. As users make their way through their worlds, they get rewards in the form of something called YuCoins. The YuCoins can in turn be used to redeem vouchers from the likes of Amazon and Asos.

Group life insurance, Rubin said, is the company’s flagship product and accounts for over 80% of revenues. Its other products — currently critical illness, income protection and dental — account for the other 20%. Its revenues, he added, are attributed to the sale of insurance policies. “Our insurance policies are holistic and include the wellness element,” he said.

Wellness in itself is a massive opportunity — worth some $1.5 trillion in 2021 according to McKinsey estimates — and while you can see a strong affinity between how that might be oriented around a life insurance product, and indeed a health insurance product, it will be interesting to see how YuLife tailors the concept to other kinds of insurance and to other products such as financial services. Rubin noted that right now one of the perks in the dental product is a free electric toothbrush for each new user (although users still have to pay to replace the heads).

In terms of the other way that YuLife could grow, Rubin added that it has “no plans” to become a DTC product but to continue selling through companies. This continues to set it apart from the wider wave of insurtechs, which have largely disrupted the incumbent market by improving accessibility to getting insurance in the first place.

AIG, Met Life and Zurich are YuLife’s current underwriters in the U.K. and Rubin said the company is currently negotiating with underwriters and other partners for its U.S. launch. Dai-chi Life does have operations in the U.S. market — among other activities it owns Protective Life — but Rubin said the strategic element of this investment is not aimed at that but rather a longer-term plan also to expand into Japan.

“Dai-ichi Life is committed to supporting companies that have a proven track record of changing people’s lives for the better, and YuLife does exactly that, by bringing tangible value to financial products to bolster individuals’ well-being,” said Toshiaki Sumino, director and managing executive officer at Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc., in a statement. “YuLife has immense potential to build on its achievements to date, and we are thrilled to invest and help propel YuLife toward its next steps and scale its global operations. YuLife shares our ethos of harnessing the latest trends in technology to make a genuine difference to the lives of those using financial products.”

The original article can be found on TechCrunch.

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Just about every electronic contraption you care to think of contains at least one printed circuit board (PCB), which serves to house and connect the various components that allow the device to function as a whole. While circuit boards are mostly invisible to end-users, they are foundational to the world they inhabit, powering smartphones, automobiles, microwave ovens, garage doors, and the entire connected world.

Thus, the global PCB market is big business, expected to grow from a $60 billion industry in 2020 to $75 billion by 2027. And it’s this sector that Germany-based Celus wants to capitalize on, with an automated platform spanning the whole circuit board design process from ideation to PCB.

To accelerate its mission to “automate electronics design,” Celus today announced it has raised €25 million ($25.6 million) in a series A round of funding.

So, what is the scale of the problem that Celus is setting out to solve, exactly?

Component shortage

Designing a PCB from scratch involves the engineer having to come up with the concept of the initial circuit diagram, based on the components that are needed to power the final product, be it transistors, resistors, capacitors, fuses, sensors, batteries, diodes, and all the rest. The problem is that there may be millions of different components to choose from, of different sizes and specifications from thousands of manufacturers. Thus, selecting the right components for the job, at the right price and availability, can be an incredibly labor-intensive manual process, involving multiple disciplines from across the company working in tandem to peruse thousands of datasheets and identify the right components.

Only then do engineers being drawing the actual circuit diagrams to bring all the components together, which eventually will find their way onto the final PCB. But if you think that’s the end of the process, you might be mistaken. Companies often have to redesign their circuit boards if certain components (such as chips) become difficult to procure, a particularly common problem in the post-pandemic supply chain, which can mean engineers must return somewhere to the vicinity of square one with their design.

“Replacing an unavailable component with a similar component is in theory possible, but this results in a time-consuming and expensive redesign of the electronic circuit and the PCB,” Celus CEO and cofounder Tobias Pohl told TechCrunch. “With the Celus automation platform, such a redesign process is handled in a matter of minutes.”

Celus has built a platform that provides engineers with component data from electronics manufacturers, while adding its own special automation sauce to the mix. Indeed, Celus automates many of the manual processes involved in circuit board design, including generating schematics — a conceptual drawing of how parts will connect — and creates a PCB “floorplan” which shows where each component should be placed on the circuit board.

“Our design canvas provides the drawing board to capture the product concept, and from there automatically generates the circuit diagram,” Pohl explained. “Components are selected based on their best fit to the requirements and the automation even generates the initial PCB. Engineers save a massive amount of time through this, meaning they can experiment, try different things, and be creative.”

So with Celus, users simply describe their requirements, which are then automatically matched to a library of components to find the best solution. And this is where Celus strives to differentiate from other AI-powered PCB players — it priorities components selection and schematics design, and makes it all available in a user-friendly GUI.

AI is used not only in the design of new circuit boards, but during the process of extracting information from existing unstructured data sources — for example, when engineers upload schematics and PCB layouts into Celus, algorithms interpret the information inside these files to make predictions.

“Traditionally, humans have had to consume and interpret many files used in circuit board design, but AI can make that type of data truly digital and interpreted by machine learning,” Pohl added.

It’s also worth noting that Celus can either be used as a standalone system, or integrated into an existing IT environment where its underlying AI smarts are put to work with industry-standard electronic design automation (EDA) tools.

Time

All of this ultimately amounts to saving precious time, a priceless commodity in a world where there is seemingly not enough skilled engineers to go around. And with global events such as pandemics and wars exacerbating this issue, Celus is well-positioned to benefit by promising time-pressured circuit board engineers the ability to redesign their products with the press of a button.

“The Covid-19 pandemic drove unprecedented component shortages within the industry — while component obsolescence and supply chain issues have always been a concern, the magnitude of the current problem means that manufacturers of electronic devices cannot ‘sit it out’, and they are being forced to redesign their products to stay in business,” Pohl continued. “Our automation deals with that redesign challenge in minutes and makes product redesign a feasible option.”

Founded out of Munich in 2018, Celus had only raised around €5.4 million in seed funding in its four-year history. However, it has amassed a fairly decent number of big-name clients in that period, including Siemens and Viessmann, a €3.4 billion German manufacturer of heating and cooling systems.

Celus’s series A round was led by Earlybird Venture Capital, with participation from DI Capital, Speedinvest, Plug and Play, and a host of angel investors including former Rolls Royce CEO Sir John Rose and Paul Gojenola, who’s VP of hardware development at Google’s Nest. With its fresh cash injection Pohl said that the company plans to open a new office in the U.S. to “position it at the heart of the electronics industry.”

“We want to reach every electronics designer out there, enabling them to focus more time on innovation and creativity, while our software reduces the tedious and time-consuming tasks they were dealing with before,” he said.

The original article can be found on TechCrunch.

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SAN JOSE, Calif., June 29, 2022 – Visby Medical, a leading medical diagnostic company, today announced that it expanded its over-subscribed Series E financing round to include an additional $35 million for a total of over $135 million raised in the round. The additional investment was led by Lightrock, who joined existing Series E investors including John Doerr, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, ND Capital, Artiman Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Blue Water Life Science Advisors and J Ventures.

The additional investment will be used to enable Visby Medical to scale production capacity, further expand the product menu to include advanced respiratory health tests, antimicrobial resistance panels, and deliver the power of PCR diagnostics to consumers at-home.

“At Visby Medical, we are revolutionizing patient care by developing diagnostics that healthcare providers can use to test for any infection anytime, anywhere,” said Visby Medical Founder and CEO Adam de la Zerda, PhD. “Especially during these times of market slowdown, our investors have shown significant confidence in Visby’s innovative technology and mission. This funding will enable us to further our goal to provide the world’s first instrument-free handheld PCR platform to accurately and rapidly test for a variety of serious infections to anyone who needs it.”

Visby’s patented gold standard PCR diagnostic technology is being developed in multiple therapeutic areas and is aimed to address a critical and growing global need: to combat the significant rise in infectious diseases. The FDA-cleared Visby Medical Sexual Health Click Test is already being used in U.S. CLIA-waived settings, such as Urgent Care and women’s health clinics, to detect gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomonas via self-collected vaginal swabs and deliver results in less than 30 minutes, eliminating the need for presumptive treatment.

Ashish Puri, Partner at Lightrock, said, “Visby Medical has produced a diagnostics tool capable of transforming patient care, enabling accurate results over the course of a patient’s visit. The innovation behind this versatile product has the potential to decentralise lab testing, producing major benefits for communities around the world and opening up access to affordable healthcare results. Lightrock invests in businesses using scalable technologies to deliver real and significant impacts and Visby aligns perfectly with that vision.”

About Visby Medical

Visby Medical is transforming the order of diagnosis and treatment for infectious diseases so clinicians can test, talk with, and treat the patient in a single visit. The Company’s proprietary technology development program culminated in the world’s first instrument-free, single-use PCR platform that fits in the palm of your hand and rapidly tests for serious infections. Originally developed for sexually transmitted infections, the Company’s FDA-cleared, CLIA-waived Sexual Health Click Test for women returns accurate results within 28 minutes. The Visby Medical technology is also helping to fight the global pandemic via the Visby Medical COVID-19 Test, and its robust pipeline includes tests for other infectious diseases. Visby Medical is accelerating the delivery of fast and accurate, palm-sized PCR diagnostics to the point of care, and eventually for use at home.

For more information, visit www.visbymedical.com. Follow Visby Medical on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The original press release can be found on Visby Medical’s website.

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Roer and Carpenter have published a new book, The Security Culture Playbook: An Executive Guide to Reducing Risk and Developing Your Human Defense Layer, to bring some hard facts to light. For instance, more than 85%of breaches trace back to humans and there is a new ransomware attack every two seconds. These attacks are costing billions of dollars, and neither better technology or promoting security information and “awareness” is hardening organizations sufficiently.

We asked Kai Roer about the limits of tech solutions, and what security culture is and how to develop one in organizations as varied as tech savvy startups and local government.

Grit Daily: Why doesn’t good security technology limit how much damage can be done by human error?

But it does! Without good security technology, errors would be much larger, more expensive, and impossible to combat. The challenge isn’t a lack of good technology; it’s that technology isn’t enough. As we innovate and create better tools and technology, all kinds of new threats come along, too, forcing us to change our behaviors and develop even better tech.

Over the past few decades, many startups have been successful in doing just that. Think about Cisco and Fortinet; both started small, both created technology, and both helped dramatically improve security for thousands of customers around the world, and they still do. Without these and other security technologies, we’d still be combating digital worms, viruses, and similar threats that we hardly ever see today.

Because of technology’s continued improvement, threat actors today have a better ROI (return on investment) when they target humans. It’s simply easier and cheaper to trick someone into opening an attachment or clicking an email link than it is to gain access to computer systems by other means.

So, the challenge isn’t a lack of security technology as much as it is a lack of technology to help humans do the right things more often—and the wrong things less often. The good news is that even in this space, new technology is quickly adopted to reduce this risk even further.

Grit Daily: What’s an example of an organization that has what you consider a good security culture?

Very few organizations demonstrate a good security culture. One reason is that a strong security culture is a moving target: what was considered “good” yesterday may no longer be good today. As new threats evolve, organizations must adapt and change. Another challenge organizations face is resilience: how well will the organization deal with a critical incident?

Some characteristics of a good security culture include: 

Resilience: Are your employees, procedures, and technology able to adjust quickly to threats and changes? For example, most organizations were forced to make dramatic changes due to COVID; over weeks—not months—employees had to move out of the office and work from home.

A way to gauge your organization’s resilience is to examine how fast—and how successfully—it managed that transition. Now apply this to your business contingency plans, and consider how a security incident would affect your company.

Preparedness: Research shows that people who are more likely to survive critical accidents, like a plane crash or train wreck, are mentally prepared. They pay attention to the security notifications and know where the emergency exits are.

This also applies to organizations. Organizations that understand and accept that there will be security incidents, regardless of their security measures, are generally doing better than those who believe “it won’t happen to us.”

Communicating to employees, “When it happens, this is what you need to do,” is a great way to prepare. Putting business contingency plans in place is also essential. And making sure employees dare to report mistakes, such as opening a loaded email attachment, is critical! Hail those who report incidents! They are your key assets.

Ongoing communication: We see over and over that organizations that communicate security and its value to employees and stakeholders do better in all aspects of security compared to those that don’t.

Consider the Government Pension Fund of Norway (GPFN), a fund with assets valued at 11 754 billion NOK, which is over $1.35 trillion USD. Its managing director, Nicolai Tangen, has made it clear that the biggest threat to the organization is cyberthreats.

He recently shared his personal experience of being the target of a cyberattack, in which the perpetrator played to his own ego to get him to open a compromised document that took control of his work computer.

Rather than pretending this never happened, Tangen shared what he and his organization learned from this experience at a number of public events. This kind of ownership demonstrates that no one is perfect; it’s just a matter of time before you’re the one being hit. And when that happens, the key is knowing what to do.

Grit Daily: The county government of Somerset County, New Jersey, which is not very far from where I live, was recently paralyzed by a ransomware attack. How do you build a security culture at government offices, school districts, and these sorts of crucial but not-very-tech-sophisticated organizations?

This is a critical question. We see government offices, schools, and other public services being hit daily, and not only in the United States. This happens all over the world.

A similar event to the Somerset County attack happened in Norway: Østre Toten Kommune (the municipality of Ostre Toten) was devastatingly hit by ransomware, and all their systems died. They are still, many months later, struggling to recreate data and bring systems back online.

The solution to this problem is to wake up politicians and public management to the reality we all face: we are all targets, and preparedness is what counts.

Now, the challenge is that funding security and IT can be difficult in many of these offices, where scant funding is often coupled with regulatory demands on how and where to spend allotted funds, leaving very little for “other services” like security. This lack of investment has led to many government offices having weak security measures in place and very little employee training. Thus, when disaster strikes, it hits hard. 

To adequately secure these organizations, they need to invest in technology, procedures, and educating the workforce. A security culture won’t replace technology or procedures; it works with and alongside these areas. 

Grit Daily: What are the metrics, aside from whether there was a breach today, for measuring an organization’s security culture?

In our book, we propose a new and more accurate method to help organizations measure security culture in a meaningful way. We call this the Security Culture Maturity Model (SCMM).

Unlike other maturity models, this one is evidence-based, meaning that it’s easier and more accurate to place your organization on the model compared to the guesswork that’s often needed in other models. By using indicators that are based on data from the organization itself, what we call Culture Maturity Indicators (CMIs), we can lay out a detailed and useful understanding of your security culture.

Example CMIs include the Security Culture Score, which is the resulting score of a security culture assessment by KnowBe4. Other CMIs are calculated based on security behaviors, such as clicking on phishing links, reporting threat emails, and so forth.

One of the benefits of the SCMM model is that CMIs can be created when new technology and methodologies evolve, so it will stay accurate and relevant even years from now. 

Grit Daily: Does security culture require organizations to hire a director or vice president, or whatever, of security culture? Who should own this role?

No, it doesn’t require hiring someone. But doing so certainly helps! As with all organizational work, having dedicated resources to champion and focus on the topic makes a huge difference. Ultimately, this role should bridge the work performed by your security and HR teams. Organizational culture, of which security culture is a part, typically belongs to HR or executive leadership.

Grit Daily: Any other points you want to make that I haven’t touched on?

Security and security culture are board-level topics because of the dramatic risk and effect security breaches have on organizations.

If your board isn’t yet discussing security and security culture, we strongly encourage you to bring it to the table. You may even propose bringing in a board member with industry experience and knowledge. More tips can be found in our book, The Security Culture Playbook: An Executive Guide To Reducing Risk and Developing Your Human Defense Layer, and at our website securityculturebook.com.

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