Salesforce tells employees to stay home (if they want!), TIkTok plays it fast and loose, and another Twitter fight for Musk

May 14, 2020

Hello! It was another comically busy day(!), but a highlight was talking this afternoon to serial founder and investor Kevin Rose, who is writing checks full time again with True Ventures and who we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with for this week's StrictlyVC Download. We'll have that for you in our next edition. More soon.:)

Top News

Salesforce is the newest tech giant to tell employees they can work from home for the rest of the year, even after its offices have reopened.

TikTok, the popular app for making and sharing short videos, has flouted an agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission to protect the privacy of children on the service, a coalition of 20 children’s and consumer groups said earlier today.

According to new figures, the unemployment rate in China remained near historic highs last month, highlighting the challenges the world’s second-largest economy still faces in recovering fully from the economic shock of the coronavirus.

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How Companies Get Back to the Office

Months into this global pandemic, many questions remain about whether and when companies of all sizes will return to their offices and what will be required of the move. The future is so unclear that even people steeped in the real estate industry don’t have all the answers — though they’re starting to make educated guesses around what will happen next.

A trove of new data being released tomorrow by the commercial real estate services giant CBRE underscores the somewhat schizophrenic situation employees will be facing. Based on CBRE’s studies of 200 companies across the globe that say they are returning to the office, 59% say they will provide face coverings for their employees, 28% percent plan to require face coverings at all times, 21% will allow visitors to the workplace in the early phases of reopening, and 13% will conduct screening of employees on-site at every facility.

Yet deciding on the exact right patchwork of social distancing measures is just one piece of the picture. Until a vaccine materializes that can eradicate COVID-19, organizing office spaces will be just as challenging as companies try striking a balance between employee safety and some semblance of normalcy. Indeed, the only certainty for many management teams is that they have to make some changes. Of the many questions CBRE posed in its survey, the most uniform answers centered on how many companies plan to establish space-use policies that reflect social distancing (80%) and how many plan to reconfigure their furniture layouts (60%).

Presumably, many will be ditching break rooms and even cafeterias. Others will be trying to ensure that employees are stationed at least six feet apart, or inviting people to work in shifts. But expect many other changes, too, suggest venture investors who are focused on real estate and construction tech and who are right now focusing on which technologies will be most in demand in the coming months and years.

More here.

Massive Fundings

CloudWalk Technology, a five-year-old, Guangzhou, China-based facial recognition company, has raised $254 million in funding from funds tied to the Chinese government. Investors include China Internet Industry Fund, Shanghai-based Guosheng Group, Nansha Financial Holdings and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

AccessiBe, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based web accessibility technology company, has raised $12 million led by K1 Investment Management. More here.

Homeward, an 18-month-old, Austin, Tex.-based real estate startup that aims to help people buy homes faster, has raised $20 million in equity funding led by Adams Street Partners with participation from Javelin Venture Partners and earlier backer LiveOak Venture Partners. Homeward also closed on $85 million in debt financing from undisclosed lenders. Last year, the company raised $4 million in equity funding and $21 million in debt funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Liongard, a five-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based unified automation platform for managed service providers (it helps them document, audit, and secure their clients’ tech infrastructure and systems across cloud and on-premise environments), has raised $17 million. Update Partners led the round, investing $12 million into the deal. Other investors to participate include TDF Ventures, Integr8d Capital and private investors. The company has now raised $23 million altogether. More here.

Traitify, a nine-year-old, Baltimore-based visual personality assessment SaaS platform focused on screening job candidates, has raised $12 million in funding led by JMI Holdings. VentureBeat has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Ettitude, a six-year-old, L.A.-based direct-to-consumer startup making sustainable bedding and sleepwear from bamboo fibers, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Drumbeat Ventures and TA Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Ophelia Health, a year-old, New York-based medication-assisted digital treatment for opioid addiction, has raised $2.7 million from General Catalyst, Refactor Capital, and Y Combinator. Forbes has more here.

Shopic, a six-year-old, Israel-based startup behind a computer vision-based frictionless checkout platform for mid-size and large grocery stores, has raised $7.6 million in Series A funding led by IBI Tech Fund, with participation from earlier backer Entrée Capital (which led the pre-seed and seed rounds). The Spoon has more here.

Transect, a four-year-old, San Antonio, Tex.-based B2B SaaS company that partners with energy and other industries to identify and plan for environmental risk, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Holt Ventures and Gary Horn. More here.

New Funds

Cathay Innovation has raised $550 million for their second global venture capital fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused VC firm, has closed its second fund with $200 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Exits

Apple has acquired virtual-reality streaming company NextVR, a Newport Beach, Ca.-based company that broadcasts live and recorded events like sports games and music concerts, for virtual-reality headsets. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. The WSJ has more here.

Microsoft has agreed to acquire Metaswitch Networks, a company with software that telecommunications companies can use to deliver voice and data services to their customers. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. CNBC examines the deal here.

People

Yikes. Jeff Bezos could become the world's first trillionaire in not so many years.

Elon Musk decided to get into an argument with Facebook's AI lead on Twitter late last night.

Essential Reads

Amazon is getting into the personal protective equipment (PPE) business.

According to Reuters, Tesla plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it says will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has completed digging a second tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, marking the end of the first phase of the $52.5 million project to build a “people-mover” system to shuttle visitors from one side of the venue to the other. The first of the two tunnels was finished in February.

A minute of loud talking can generate more than 1,000 coronavirus-laden droplets that linger in the air for 8 minutes, according to new research.

Detours

How to create the best at-home videoconferencing set-up, for every budget.

Jonah Hill has just been recognized for dropping the most curse words in film history.

How I'm living now: Ricky Gervais.

Retail Therapy

A fab prefab in Iceland.

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Salesforce tells employees to stay home (if they want!), TIkTok plays it fast and loose, and another Twitter fight for Musk

Older messages

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Tesla ramps up production, Twitter tells employees they can stay home, and how time works now (an update)

New Apple headphone details, Musk begs to be arrested, and a little Fauchi just for you

Nintendo's endurance, Tesla's newest fight, and a giant thank you to mothers everywhere

Uber's earnings, Bitcoin's bounce, and Spike Lee's latest

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