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Uber self-driving cars are back testing on San Francisco streets

Uber Advanced Technologies Group has resumed testing autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, two years after the company scaled back its testing program following a fatal crash in Arizona that killed a pedestrian.

Uber’s self-driving vehicle unit is tiptoeing back into testing its autonomous vehicle technology on public roads.

Uber ATG ended all testing on public roads after one of its vehicles struck and killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe. Uber ATG was testing its self-driving vehicles in the Phoenix area, Toronto, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. At the time, the company let go all 100 of its self-driving car operators in Pittsburgh and San Francisco and rumors circulated that the company wanted to sell its self-driving unit.

Uber ATG resumed in December 2018 on-road testing of its self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh, following the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s decision to authorize the company to put its autonomous vehicles on public roads.

The company will initially limit testing in San Francisco to a few weeks with two Volvo XC90 vehicles equipped with Uber’s self-driving system. Testing on public roads started Tuesday and will only be conducted during daylight hours, according to Uber. Each vehicle will be staffed by a safety driver.

Uber ATG received a permit last month from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the department that regulates autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the state. The company said at the time that it didn’t have immediate plans to put its autonomous vehicles on public roads in San Francisco. One month later, it’s now back on the road, albeit in a limited fashion.

“We are excited to resume autonomous testing in Uber’s home city this week. Our testing area will be limited in scope to start, but we look forward to scaling up our efforts in the months ahead and learning from the difficult but informative road conditions that the Bay Area has to offer,” an Uber spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Uber is now testing in Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

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Female-founded startups landed more deals globally in 2019 than ever before

We all know the disruptive stories of female-founded startups like Glossier and ezCater. And we also know how those success stories belie the much harder time thousands of other women entrepreneurs have when it comes to raising capital.

That’s why it’s so important to have historical data and a window into how these things may be changing, so that the industry can consistently benchmark its successes and failures in an attempt to correct historical inequities in the ways venture firms distributed capital. 

Looking at the latest numbers from All Raise and Pitchbook, it’s clear that for every step forward, the industry still has a long way to go. 

In 2019, female-founded startups across the world landed a record 4,399 investments, according to data from All Raise, a nonprofit organization that wants to increase the diversity in the venture capital industry, and Pitchbook data.

While deal count has increased, dollars raised declined in 2019 sliding to $37.7 billion from $49.9 billion in 2018. It’s worth noting that 2018 included an outsized round from Ant Financial, which may have skewed dollar totals. It’s also worth pointing out that over the same period venture capital firms in the U.S. alone invested more than $130 billion into startup companies. 

For what it’s worth, 2019 broke all kinds of records. All Raise and Pitchbook’s data shows that 2019, compared to a decade ago, had a 1408% increase in deal value. Additionally, according to Crunchbase data, female-founded unicorns, companies valued at over $1 billion, were being born at an unprecedented rate in 2019. While a female-founded unicorn is still rare, the proliferation is notable, and goes well with one of All Raise’s goals: to increase investment in female-founded companies.

However, All Raise’s latest data doesn’t touch on one of its goals, which is to double the percentage of female investment partners at tech VC firms over the next 10 years. Last month, Pam Kostka, the CEO of All Raise, wrote a Medium blog on how more women became VC partners than ever before in 2019. All Raise claimed major US firms added 52 women partners in 2019. Last month, Recode said those numbers might be “overstating the progress” due to the different definitions of partner. For example, some female partners may have the title of partner, but not the decision-making capabilities. 

Bottom line: the numbers are important, but the nuance within them is more telling, especially when it comes to diversity. For proof, look as far as Kostka’s headline: “More Women Became VC Partners Than Ever Before In 2019 But 65% of Venture Firms Still Have Zero Female Partners.” 

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Los Angeles-based Talespin nabs $15 million for its extended reality-based workforce training tools

It turns out the virtual and augmented reality companies aren’t dead — as long as they focus on the enterprise. That’s what the Los Angeles-based extended reality technology developer Talespin did — and it just raised $15 million to grow its business. 

Traditional venture capitalists may have made it rain on expensive Hollywood studios that were promising virtual reality would be the future of entertainment and social networking (given coronavirus fears, it may yet be), but Talespin and others like it are focused on much more mundane goals. Specifically, making talent management, training and hiring easier for employers in certain industries.

For Talespin, the areas that were the most promising were ones that aren’t obvious to a casual observer. Insurance and virtual reality are hardly synonymous, but Talespin’s training tools have helped claims assessors do their jobs and helped train a new generation of insurance investigators in what to look for when they’re trying to determine how much their companies are going to pay out.

“Talespin‘s immersive platform has transformed employee learning and proven to be an impactful addition to our training programs. We’re honored to continue to support the Talespin team through this next phase of growth and development,” said Scott Lindquist, Chief Financial Officer at Farmers Insurance, in a statement.

Farmers is an investor in Talespin, as is the corporate training and talent management software provider Cornerstone OnDemand, and the hardware manufacturer HTC. The round’s composition speaks to the emerging confidence of corporate investors and just how skeptical traditional venture firms have become of the prospects for virtual reality.

The prospects of augmented and virtual reality may be uncertain, but what’s definite is the need for new tools and technologies to transfer knowledge and train up employees as skilled, experienced workers age out of the workforce — and the development of new skills becomes critically important as technology changes the workplace.

Cornerstone, which led the Talespin Series B round, will also be partnering with the company to develop human resources training tools in virtual reality.

“We share Talespin’s vision that the workforce needs innovative solutions to stay competitive, maximize opportunity and increase employee satisfaction,” said Jason Gold, Vice President of Finance, Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Cornerstone, in a statement. “We’ve been incredibly impressed with Talespin’s technology, leadership team and vision to transform the workplace through XR. Talespin’s technology is a perfect fit in our suite of products, and we look forward to working together to deliver great solutions for our customers.”

Talespin previously raised $5 million in financing. The company initially grew its business by developing a number of one-off projects for eventual customers as it determined a product strategy. Part of the company’s success has relied in its ability to use game engine and animation instead of 360 degree video. That means assets can be reused multiple times and across different training modules.

“Creating better alignment between skills and opportunities is the key to solving the reskilling challenges organizations across the world are facing,” said Kyle Jackson, CEO and Co-Founder of Talespin, in a statement. “That’s why it’s critical companies find a way to provide accelerated, continuous learning and create better skills data. By doing so, we will open up career pathways for individuals that are better aligned to their natural abilities and learned skills, and enable companies to implement a skills-based approach to talent development, assessment, and placement. Our new funding and partnership with Cornerstone will allow us to expand our product offerings to achieve these goals, and to continue building innovative solutions that redefine what work looks like in the future.”

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NASA moves forward with 17 companies as part of bid to transform urban aerial transportation

NASA and a clutch of startup and established companies are moving forward with plans to transform mobility in urban environments through the Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge.

If it’s fully implemented, the new Urban Air Mobility system could enable air transit for things like package delivery, taxi services, expanded air medical services, and cargo delivery to underserved or rural communities, the Agency said in a statement.

The Grand Challenge series brings together companies developing new transportation or airspace management technologies, the Agency said.

“With this step, we’re continuing to put the pieces together that we hope will soon make real the long-anticipated vision of smaller piloted and unpiloted vehicles providing a variety of services around cities and in rural areas,” said Robert Pearce, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics, in a statement.

The idea is to bring companies to collaborate and also give regulatory agencies a window into the technologies and how they may work in concert to bring air mobility to the masses in the coming years.

“Our partnership with the FAA will be a key factor in the successful and safe outcomes for industry that we can expect from conducting these series of Grand Challenges during the coming years,” Pearce said, in a statement.

Getting the agreements signed are the first step in a multi-stage process that will culminate in the challenge’s official competition in 2022. There are preliminary technological tests that will take place this year.

“We consider this work as a risk reduction step toward Grand Challenge 1,” said Starr Ginn, NASA’s Grand Challenge lead. “It is designed to allow U.S. developed aircraft and airspace management service providers to essentially try out their systems with real-world operations in simulated environments that we also will be flight testing to gain experience.”

Partnerships for the challenge fall into three categories:

  • Developmental Flight Testing: These are industry partners providing vehicles that will fly in the challenge.
  • Developmental Airspace Simulation: The companies will test traffic management services in NASA-designed airspace simulations for urban air mobility.
  • Vehicle Provider Information Exchange: These partners are also working closely with NASA to provide information about their vehicles so NASA can prep them for possible flight activities that will occur during the 2022 Grand Challenge.

The Grand Challenge is managed through NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility project, which was established in the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to coordinate urban air mobility activities.

Companies participating in the challenge include:

  • Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, California
  • AirMap, Inc., of Santa Monica, California
  • AiRXOS, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia
  • ANRA Technologies, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia
  • ARINC Inc., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  • Avision, Inc., of Santa Monica, California
  • Ellis & Associates, Los Angeles, CA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lacuna Technologies, Palo Alto, CA
  • GeoRq LLC of Holladay, Utah
  • Metron Aviation, Inc., of Herndon, Virginia
  • OneSky Systems Inc., of Exton, Pennsylvania
  • Uber Technologies, Inc., of San Francisco, California
  • he University of North Texas of Denton, Texas
  • Bell Textron of Ft. Worth, Texas
  • The Boeing Company of Chantilly, Virginia
  • NFT Inc., of Mountain View, California
  • Prodentity, LLC of Corrales, New Mexico
  • Zeva Inc., of Spanaway, Washington
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New York’s Governor Cuomo requires insurers to waive cost sharing for COVID-19 tests

In a move that other states might want to emulate, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said that the state’s Department of Financial Services is requiring health insurers in the state to waive cost sharing associated with testing for the new coronavirus, COVID-19.

The initiative paves the way for low-cost emergency room, urgent care, and hospital visits for patients worried that they may have contracted the virus.

The Governor also said that New Yorkers receiving Medicaid coverage will not be expected to pay a co-pay for any testing related to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The steps are designed to ensure that residents of the state won’t have to worry about cost as an obstacle for getting tested. Any tests that are being conducted at the State’s Wadsworth Lab are fully covered.

Cuomo’s administration also outlined other actions health insurers are either going to be required or advised to take — including informing New Yorkers of available benefits, offering telehealth medical advice and treatment, and preparing insurers to cover the costs of COVID-19 immunizations if a vaccine becomes available.

“We have the best health-care system in the world, and we are leveraging that system including our state-of-the-art Wadsworth testing lab to help contain any potential spread of the novel coronavirus in New York,” Governor Cuomo said, in a statement. “Containing this virus depends on us having the facts about who has it – and these measures will break down any barriers that could prevent New Yorkers from getting tested.”

The state’s initiative will prevent insurers from forcing cost-sharing on in-network provider office visits or urgent care visits, when the purpose is a test for the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. The initiative is also designed to ensure that New Yorkers receiving Medicaid coverage have their costs covered.

Employees who are in self-funded employer-based plans not regulated b ERISA statutes need to contact employers to see how the new regulations will effect them.

The State is also requiring insurers to devote resources to inform consumers of available benefits; provide and promote telehealth services; encourage and verify whether provider networks are adequately prepared to handle potential increases in demand for services including offering access to out-of-network services; covering the costs of immunizations if they become available; expand access to prescription drugs; and ensure proper emergency care.

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Aurora VP Jinnah Hosein is coming to TC Sessions: Robotics + AI

TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics + AI is tomorrow and we have one more exciting speaker announcement to share.

Jinnah Hosein, the vice president of software engineering at self-driving vehicle startup Aurora, is coming to TC Sessions: Robotics + AI at UC Berkeley on March 3. Hosein will join Ike Robotics CTO and co-founder Jur van den Berg on stage to discuss autonomous vehicles, particularly safety critical software and the various technical approaches being taking to solve this game-changing technology.

If Hosein’s name sounds familiar, it should be. After a 10-year stint at Google, where he rose to director of software engineering, Hosein went to SpaceX . While Hosein was heading up the software engineering at SpaceX, he also was working at Elon Musk’s other company Tesla, where he was interim vp of Autopilot software.

Who else is coming to TC Sessions: Robotics + AI? Nvidia VP of engineering Claire Delaunay, the CEOs of Traptic, Farmwise and Pyka, a packed panel featuring Boston Dynamics’ Construction Technologist Brian Ringley, Built Robotics’ Noah Campbell-Ready, Tessa Lau of Dusty Robotics and Toggle’s Daniel Blank as well as TRI-AD’s CEO James Kuffner and TRI’s VP of Robotics Max Bajrachary. And that’s just a few of the speakers, not to mention demos and exhibits to be found at TC Sessions: Robotics + AI.

Tickets are on sale now for $345; you’ll save $50 when you book now as prices go up at the door.

Student tickets are still available at the super-discounted $50 rate when you book here.

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Announcing the agenda for TC Sessions: Mobility 2020

TC Sessions: Mobility is back in San Jose on May 14, and we’re excited to give the first peek of what and who is coming to the main stage. We’re not revealing everything just yet, but already this agenda highlights some of the best and brightest minds in autonomous vehicles, electrification and shared mobility.

We’ve selected the most innovative startups and top leaders from established tech companies working in mobility. This past year saw huge leaps forward, and we’re thrilled to bring the latest and greatest to our stage.

This year, we’re holding a pitch-off competition for early stage mobility companies. More details to come.

Don’t forget that early-bird tickets (including $100 savings) are currently available for a limited time; grab your tickets here before prices increase.

Some speakers have already been announced, and more will be added to the agenda in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out this early look at the agenda:

AGENDA

9:35 AM – 10:05 AM

Investing in Mobility: with Reilly Brennan (Trucks VC), Olaf Sakkers (Maniv Mobility) and speakers to be announced.

Reilly Brennan, Olaf Sakkers and two yet-to-be announced venture capitalists will come together to debate the uncertain future of mobility tech and whether VC dollars are enough to push the industry forward.

10:05 AM – 10:25 AM

Coming soon!

10:25 AM – 10:50

The next opportunities in micromobility with Danielle Harris (Elemental Excelerator), Dor Levi (Lyft), and Dmitry Shevelenko (Tortoise)

Worldwide, numerous companies are operating shared micromobility services — so many that the industry is well into a consolidation phase. Despite the over-saturation of the market, there are still opportunities for new players. Dor Levi, head of bikes and scooters at Lyft, Danielle Harris, director of mobility innovation at Elemental Excelerator and Dmitry Shevelenko, founder at Tortoise will discuss.

10:50 AM – 11:10 AM

Waymo Grows Up with Tekedra Mawakana (Waymo)

Waymo Chief Operating Officer Tekedra Mawakana is at the center of Waymo’s future from scaling the autonomous vehicle company’s commercial deployment and directing fleet operations to developing the company’s business path. Tekedra will speak about what lies ahead as Waymo drives forward with its plan to become a grownup business.

11:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Innovation Break

11:30 AM – 11:40 AM

Live Demo. Coming soon!

11:40 AM – 12:00 PM

Setting the Record Straight with Bryan Salesky (Argo AI)

Argo AI has gone from unknown startup to a company providing the autonomous vehicle technology to Ford and VW — not to mention billions in investment from the two global automakers. Co-founder and CEO Bryan Salesky will talk about the company’s journey, what’s next and what it really takes to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology.

1:00 PM – 1:25 PM

Pitch-Off

Select, early-stage companies, hand-picked by TechCrunch editors, will take the stage and have 5 minutes to present their companies.

1:25 PM – 1:45 PM

Building an AV Startup with  Nancy Sun (Ike)

Ike co-founder and chief engineer Nancy Sun will share her experiences in the world of automation and robotics, a ride that has taken her from Apple to Otto and Uber before she set off to start a self-driving truck company. Sun will discuss what the future holds for trucking and the challenges and the secrets behind building a successful mobility startup.

1:45 PM – 2:10 PM

Working with Cities, Not Against Them with Euwyn Poon (Spin) and Shin-pei Tsay (Uber)

Many micromobility services got off to a rough start with cities in the early days of the industry. Now, operators are making a point to work more closely with regulators from the very beginning. Hear from Spin co-founder Euwyn Poon and Uber Director of Policy, Cities and Transportation Shin-pei Tsay on what it takes to make a copacetic relationship between operators and cities.

2:10 PM – 2:30 PM

Innovation Break

2:30 PM – 2:50 PM

The electrification of Porsche with Klaus Zellmer (Porsche)

Porsche has undergone a major transformation in the past several years, investing billions into an electric vehicle program and launching the Taycan, its first all-electric vehicle. Now, Porsche is ramping up for more. North America CEO Klaus Zellmer will talk about Porsche’s path, competition and where it’s headed next.

2:50 PM – 3:15 PM

Navigating Self-Driving Car Regulations with Melissa Froelich (Aurora) and Jody Kelman (Lyft)

Autonomous vehicle developers face a patchwork of local, state and federal regulations. Government policy experts Jody Kelman, who leads the self-driving platform team at Lyft, and Melissa Froelich Senior Manager, Government Affairs at Aurora, discuss how to get your startup back on the road safely.

3:15 PM – 3:35 PM

Coming Soon!

3:35 PM – 4:00 PM

The Future of Trucking with Xiaodi Hou (TuSimple) and Boris Sofman (Waymo)

TuSimple co-founder and CTO Xiaodi Hou and Boris Sofman, former Anki Robotics founder and CEO who now leads Waymo’s trucking unit, will discuss the business and the technical challenges of autonomous trucking.

4:00 PM – 4:20 PM

Innovation Break

4:20 PM – 4:30 PM

Live Demo. Coming soon!

4:30 PM – 4:55 PM

Coming soon!

Don’t forget to grab your tickets and join us this May.

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FDA allows new diagnostic technologies to test for coronavirus before receiving emergency approvals

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today that it would allow new diagnostics technologies to be used to test for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at elite academic hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country.

The agency’s new initiative comes as critics have assailed various U.S. government agencies for being woefully underprepared to effectively address the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country despite being aware of the potential risks the virus posed since the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China in early December.

As the first diagnosed cases of the new virus appeared in the country, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had conducted only 459 tests. Meanwhile, China had five commercial tests for the coronavirus on the market one month ago and can now conduct up to 1.6 million tests per week. South Korea has tested another 65,00 people so far, according to a report in Science Magazine. Initial tests in the U.S. were hampered by the distribution of test kits which contained a faulty reagent — rendering the kits useless.

The CDC isn’t the only U.S. agency criticized for its mishandling of the response to a potential outbreak. On Thursday a whistleblower complaint was filed against the Department of Health and Human Services alleging that the agency sent over a dozen employees to Wuhan to evacuate American citizens from the country without the proper training or protective gear, as first reported by The Washington Post.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration is opening the doors for research centers across the country to use new technologies that have yet to be approved for emergency use in order to dramatically increase the number of tests healthcare facilities can perform.

“We believe this policy strikes the right balance during this public health emergency,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, in a statement. “We will continue to help to ensure sound science prior to clinical testing and follow-up with the critical independent review from the FDA, while quickly expanding testing capabilities in the U.S. We are not changing our standards for issuing Emergency Use Authorizations. This action today reflects our public health commitment to addressing critical public health needs and rapidly responding and adapting to this dynamic and evolving situation.”

The new policy allows laboratories to begin to use validated COVID-19 diagnostics before the FDA has completed review of the labs’ Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) requests, the agency said in a statement.

In cases where the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that there’s a public health emergency or a significant potential for a public health emergency, the FDA can issue these EUAs to permit the use of medical products that can diagnose, treat, or prevent a disease. The HHS secretary determined that the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus was just such an emergency on February 4.

So far, the FDA has authorized one EUA for COVID-19 that’s already being used by the CDC and some public health labs, the agency said.

“The global emergence of COVID-19 is concerning, and we appreciate the efforts of the FDA to help bring more testing capability to the U.S.,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).

Development of new diagnostics tests are handled by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the HHS Office responsible for preparedness and response to health issues.

“This step may reduce development costs, speed the process for availability at more testing sites, incentivize private development and, ultimately, help save lives,” said Rick Bright, the BARDA’s director.

Startups like the Redwood City, Calif.-based genome sequencing device manufacturer, Genapsys, and Co-Diagnostics, another molecular diagnostics startup out of Salt Lake City, have been approached by the Chinese government and European testing facilities, respectively.

In the U.S. a number of large, publicly traded companies and startups are pursuing new diagnostics tools that can be used to identify the novel strain of the coronavirus.

“At BARDA, we are identifying industry partners to develop rapid diagnostics that can be used in commercial and hospital labs or even doctors’ offices so that medical professionals and their patients have the information they need to take action,” Bright said.

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Amazon Transcribe can now automatically redact personally identifiable information

Amazon Transcribe, the AWS-based speech-to-text service, launched a small but important new feature this morning that, if implemented correctly, can automatically hide your personally identifiable information from call transcripts.

One of the most popular use cases for Transcribe is to create a record of customer calls. Almost by default, that involves exchanging information like your name, address or a credit card number. In my experience, some call centers stop the recording when you’re about to exchange credit card numbers, for example, but that’s not always the case.

With this new feature, Transcribe can automatically identify information like a social security number, credit card number, bank account number, name, email address, phone number and mailing address and redact that. The tool automatically replaces this information with ‘[PII]’ in the transcript.

There are, of course, other tools that can remove PII from existing documents. Often, though, these are focused on data loss prevention tools and aim to keep data from leaking out of the company when you share documents with outsiders. With this new Transcribe tool, at least some of this data will never be available for sharing (unless, of course, you keep a copy of the audio).

In total, Transcribe currently supports 31 languages. Of those, it can transcribe 6 in real-time for captioning and other use cases.

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Particle lays off 10% staff and co-founder departs after ‘turbulent period’

San Francisco-based startup Particle was one of the rising stars in the Internet of Things space, raising more than $81 million to date on the promise of helping to manage and secure the next-generation of connected devices.

But the company is only now emerging from what it’s co-founder and chief executive Zach Supalla called a “turbulent period,” prompting layoffs and cost-cutting to help stay afloat, TechCrunch has learned.

Founded in 2012, Particle snagged $40 million in its Series C fundraise last October from big industrial investors including Qualcomm Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, signaling strong support for the company’s mission. The startup pitches its flagship platform as an all-in-one solution to manage and secure IoT devices with encryption and security, but also scalability and data autonomy.

But a recent email sent by Supalla to his staff — obtained by TechCrunch — shows the company is course-correcting after a recent revenue miss.

The email, which the company confirmed was sent by the chief executive, said Particle laid off 14 staff earlier this month, representing about 10% of the company. The layoffs of both engineering and support staff came just weeks after co-founder and chief technology officer Zachary Crockett quietly departed the company for “unrelated” reasons, said Supalla. (Crockett did not respond to a request for comment.)

According to Supalla’s email to staff, Particle’s revenue goal in 2019 was $16 million but it ended the year with $10.3 million. Supalla cited, among other things, “operational challenges” with the business that he said kept the company “from executing as well as we could.”

Supalla said that the company still has a “flush” bank account with more than $30 million in the bank, but the company’s current burn rate of $2 million per month is “uncomfortably high.”

“We would only have until early 2021 to prepare for the next stage of financing the company,” he said.

The email added that the company is bringing on $10 million in venture debt, but Supalla told TechCrunch that the deal is “still in progress.” Particle is aiming to reduce its burn rate to about $1.6 million per month, which Supalla’s email said would be achievable with the recent layoffs but also reducing discretionary budgets, including marketing.

The cost-cutting will “put us in a position of financial strength,” the email said, adding that the company has “no intentions” of further layoffs.

Although the 14 staff have been given severance, one source said that some are still waiting for the payouts — some two weeks after the announcement — which Supalla confirmed in an email. TechCrunch also learned that former staff were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. Supalla told TechCrunch that these agreements come with non-disparagement clauses, but that anyone laid off that wanted to be released from the non-disparagement terms would be.

Supalla’s email is hardly the death knell for the company, but questions remain about its revenue targets and its efforts to reduce its monthly burn rate. The chief executive’s email said, candidly, that while layoffs can signal financial duress, they’re all too often made too late and “as a last resort.”

“That’s not what’s happening here,” said Supalla. “We have plenty of money in the bank and are making prudent cuts to strengthen the business.”

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