NextView Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital fund, has raised an $89.6 million fund, according to SEC filings. The firm’s fourth fund, its largest to date, is oversubscribed, with early documents indicating a $70 million goal. The NextView Ventures team did not immediately respond to request for comment.

NextView Ventures was launched in 2010 by Rob Go, a former partner at Spark Capital; Dave Beisel, who clocked time at Venrock and Masthead Venture Partners; and Lee Hower, a former investor at Point Judith Capital. Most recently, the fund brought on former journalist Leah Fessler as an investor.

The fund, which has offices in New York as well as Boston, invests in consumer and software-as-a-service enterprise startups at the pre-seed and seed stage. Its portfolio includes Ellevest, an investing platform for women; Grove Collaborative, a sustainable goods subscription platform; and ThredUp, which has confidentially filed for IPO. In April, NextView launched a virtual accelerator for startups to build a more robust pipeline for deal flow. The firm invested $200,000 for an 8% equity stake in a number of pre-seed and seed startups focused on “the everyday economy.”

More Boston coverage

A hot Boston VC Summer

13 Boston investors reflect on COVID-19

Local accelerators provide a boon to area startups

Despite the pandemic, Boston’s startup scene has continued to attract record numbers in venture capital volume. In fact, according to PitchBook data, Boston-area startups raised more private capital during summer 2020 than they did in summer 2019, suggesting that the pandemic has been a boon to startups in aggregate.

More recently, my colleague Alex Wilhelm and I wrote about how the Boston area is growing its demographic footprint in venture capital. In Q3 2019, New England drove 9.3% of U.S. venture deals, and 10.3% of U.S. venture dollars. In Q3 2020, those numbers were 9.3% of U.S. venture deals, and 12.7% of U.S. venture dollars. The percentage change is notable, especially amid volatile times.

NextView’s new fund is yet another signal of the city’s ability to attract institutional investment. Its previous fund was raised in 2017 at a $50 million close.

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Google today announced that it is ending support for Expeditions. The VR app will also be pulled from its own Play Store and Apple’s App Store in June of next year. In a blogpost somewhat confusingly titled, “Expanding Google Arts and Culture with Expeditions,” the company notes the 360-degree tours captured for the project will survive — but will be moved to Google Arts & Culture.

Director of Program Management, Education, Jennifer Holland, says the decision was made to make the content more accessible to students and educators.

“Engaging students in the classroom has taken on an entirely different meaning this year. As schools around the world reimagine education from the ground up for a hybrid world, we’ve also been thinking deeply about how to adjust our tools to meet the moment and simultaneously build for the future,” she writes. “We’ve heard and recognize that immersive experiences with VR headsets are not always accessible to all learners and even more so this year, as the transition to hybrid learning has presented challenges for schools to effectively use Expeditions.”

The content will be included alongside Arts & Culture’s museum tours and other content, available for free to all users. That, at least, is a small win for teachers and parents who have struggled to keep up kids’ education in the face of a pandemic that has contributed to major school closures.

Notably, the news comes a little over a month after Google announced it would be ending support for the ill-fated Daydream VR platform. Launched four years ago, the project was an effort to bring low-cost virtual reality that failed to reach its potential.

Google wakes up from its VR daydream

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The latest Mac operating system arrives, Amazon faces a lawsuit over PPE and Disney+ turns one. This is your Daily Crunch for November 12, 2020.

The big story: Apple releases macOS Big Sur

This update, which was first announced five months ago at WWDC, includes a number of design changes that continue to blur the line between macOS and iOS.

One of the big additions is the Control Center, an iOS/iPadOS feature that presents a translucent pane down the right side of the screen. Meanwhile, Safari added features like built-in translation. And app icons and sounds have been updated throughout.

Brian Heater has been using the beta since June, and he concluded that Big Sur “boasts some key upgrades to apps and the system at large, but more importantly from Apple’s perspective, it lays the groundwork for the first round of Arm-powered Macs and continues its march toward a uniformity between the company’s two primary operating systems.”

The tech giants

Facebook’s Snapchat-like ‘Vanish Mode’ feature arrives on Messenger and Instagram — The feature, meant for more casual conversations, allows users to set chats to automatically delete after the message is seen and the chat is closed.

Amazon faces lawsuit alleging failure to provide PPE to workers during pandemic — The class action suit alleges Amazon failed to properly protect its warehouse workers and violated elements of New York City’s human rights law.

Apple HomePod Mini review: Remarkably big sound — A smart speaker for the masses.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Menlo Security announces $100M Series E on $800M valuation — CEO and co-founder Amir Ben-Efraim told us the startup remains focused on web and email as major attack vectors.

Livestorm raises $30M for its browser-based meeting and webinar platform — It’s purely browser based, without requiring presenters or attendees to install any software.

Nana nabs $6M for an online academy and marketplace dedicated to appliance repair — Nana runs a free academy to teach people how to fix appliances, then gives them the option to become a part of its repair marketplace.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Are subscription services the future of fintech? — As subscriptions become an increasingly alluring business model, fintechs will have to consider whether this strategy is worth the risk.

Conflicts in California’s trade secret laws on customer lists create uncertainty — Read this before you jump ship or hire a salesperson who already has.

As public investors reprice edtech bets, what’s ahead for the hot startup sector? — Selling edtech on the vaccine news (as investors did) was a bet that growth in the sector would be constrained by a return to normalcy.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Disney+ has more than 73M subscribers — The streaming service launched one year ago today.

L’Oréal rolls out a line of ‘virtual makeup’ — This builds on L’Oréal’s 2018 acquisition of an augmented reality filter company called Modiface.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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New research has found that San Francisco and London have become two of the world’s leading hubs for VC investment into tech solutions which address one or more of the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), more commonly referred to as ‘Impact Tech’.

Tech solutions for such pressing issues as the climate crisis and social inequality has seen a 280% increase in global VC investment from 2015 to 2020, while investment in this space more than doubled in both cities over the past five years. The report was put together by London & Partners and Dealroom as part of this week’s Silicon Valley Comes to the UK virtual event.

According to the research, VC investment into London-based impact tech start-ups has grown by almost 800% (7.8 times) since 2015, compared to 3.1 times in Europe as a whole. 2020 is set to be a record year for London’s impact tech companies, which have received $1.2bn in VC investment from January to October, already matching 2019 levels. London’s impact firms have also secured 429 deals between 2015 and 2020, more than any other city globally.
 
San Francisco’s impact based tech companies have also shown strong growth over the past five years, with the data revealing that VC investment into its impact tech companies has almost tripled (2.8 times) from 2015 to 2020. So far this year, SF-based impact tech companies attracted $1.7bn of VC investment in 2020 – more than any other city globally. At a national level, the United States received more VC funding for impact tech companies than any other country in the past five years, with investors pumping $35.8bn into US firms since 2015, double the amount invested into China ($16.8bn) and the United Kingdom ($6.1bn).
 
The research also found that UK capital has produced 241 impact start-ups since 2006, with 95 companies founded in San Francisco. In London, ‘impact unicorns’ include Octopus Energy (green energy), Arrival (zero-emission, public transportation vehicles) and Gousto (food) and Babylon Health (AI healthtech).

Climate change and clean energy solutions have attracted the most interest from investors in both cities, making up over 50% of overall VC investment over the last five years. Funding rounds including at least one North American investor made up $234m of VC investment so far this year in London, up from $85m in 2018, and equating to a fifth of all VC investment into London’s impact startups.
 
Funding rounds for London impact companies involving North American investors in 2020 include a $118m growth equity round into Arrival by Blackrock, an $80m Series B round for COMPASS Pathways and a $25m Series C funding for Tractable.

Meanwhile, Impact startups are crossing the pond in both directions. Arrival is now operating in Los Angeles, while Octopus Energy launched in the US market in September after closing a $360m funding round in April and acquiring Silicon Valley-based startup Evolve Energy. And San Francisco-based Allbirds, the sustainable shoe retailer, opened its first European flagship store in London in July 2018.

Commenting, Janet Coyle, managing director for business, London & Partners said: “San Francisco and London are two of the world’s top hubs for innovation and technology. But today’s figures also show that they are leading the way in creating purpose-driven companies striving to tackle some of the most pressing environmental and social challenges.”

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Electric automaker Rivian will makes its hands-free driver assistance system standard in every vehicle it builds, including its first two vehicles — the RT1 pickup truck and R1S SUV — that are coming to market in 2021.

Details about the system, which is branded as Driver+, was just one of numerous new bits of information released Wednesday on its website, including prices and specs on its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV.

Rivian said the driver assistance system will automatically steer, adjust speed and change lanes on command. The capabilities of the system that Rivian describes suggests it is a Level 2 system as designated by SAE International. Level 2 means the system can perform two or more parts of the driving task under supervision of the driver. To support this level of driving, the system will be powered by two redundant compute platforms, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 10 exterior cameras, five radars and high-precision GPS. This essentially gives the vehicle 360-camera and radar visibility. It’s robust suite of hardware that exceeds what Tesla uses for its driver assistance system. The hardware suite is similar to GM’s hands-free Super Cruise system with the exception that Rivian appears to have more cameras.

Rivian to begin deliveries of electric pickup truck in June 2021

Rivian is also placing driver-monitoring system that includes a cabin-facing camera in its vehicles to ensure that drivers keep their eyes on the road when the system is engaged. Initially, the hands-free system will only be available on select highways and then expand over time — improvements achieved via over-the-air software updates — to include a broader geographic area and more road types. This is similar to GM’s approach with its hands-free Super Cruise system, which was initially limited to certain divided highways and eventually expanded.

While there are a number of automakers with Level 2 systems, they vary in capability. GM’s hands-free Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot systems are considered some of the most capable and easy to use, per a recent Consumer Reports evaluation of driver assistance systems. However, Tesla’s system scored lower overall because it lacks a driver monitoring system that makes sure the driver is alert and paying attention to the road.

Rivian raises $2.5 billion as it pushes to bring its electric RT1 pickup, R1S SUV to market

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Google changes its storage policy, Facebook extends its political ad ban and Ring doorbells are recalled. This is your Daily Crunch for November 11, 2020.

The big story: Google Photos will end free, unlimited storage

Google is changing its storage policies for free accounts in a way that could have a big impact on anyone regularly using Google Photos.

Currently, Google Photos allows users to store unlimited images (and HD video) as long as they’re under 16 megapixels. Starting on June 1, 2021, new photos and videos will all count toward the 15 gigabytes of free storage that the company offers to anyone with a free Google account.

Google says it will take the average user three years to reach 15 gigabytes — at which point they’ll either need to delete some photos or pay for a Google One account. Also on June 1: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files will start counting toward your storage total as well.

The tech giants

Facebook extends its temporary ban on political ads for another month — The company says the temporary ban will continue for at least another month.

ByteDance asks federal appeals court to vacate US order forcing it to sell TikTok — TikTok’s parent company says it remains committed to a negotiated solution and will only try to stop the government from forcing a sale “if discussions reach an impasse.”

Ring doorbells recalled over fire threat — The recall comes in the wake of 23 reports of fire and eight reports of minor burns.

Startups, funding and venture capital

SentinelOne, an AI-based endpoint security firm, confirms $267M raise on a $3.1B valuation — SentinelOne’s Singularity monitors and secures laptops, phones and other network-connected devices and services.

E-commerce startup Heroes raises $65M in equity and debt to become the Thrasio of Europe — The company has a strategy of acquiring and scaling high-performing Amazon businesses.

Seedcamp raises £78M for its fifth fund — This new fund increases the amount of capital the firm will invest in pre-seed and seed-stage companies.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Dear Sophie: What does Biden’s win mean for tech immigration? — Attorney Sophie Alcorn looks at the presidential election’s impact on U.S. immigration and immigration reform.

Greylock’s Asheem Chandna on ‘shifting left’ in cybersecurity and the future of enterprise startups — Enterprise software is changing faster this year than it has in a decade.

Square and PayPal earnings bring good (and bad) news for fintech startups — Square’s earnings give us a window into consumer payment activity, card usage, stock purchases and more.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Honda to mass-produce Level 3 autonomous cars by March — Honda claims it will be the first automaker to mass-produce vehicles with autonomous capabilities that meet SAE Level 3 standards.

Data audit of UK political parties finds laundry list of failings — The audit claims parties are failing to come clean with voters about how they’re being invisibly profiled and targeted.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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In the past several weeks we’ve seen refreshes and product expansions from about every facet of the smart home virtual assistant world. Apple launched the HomePod Mini, Google offered a long-overdue refresh of the Google Home, and Amazon found even more speaker shapes to shove Alexa into.

Today, we’re getting an addition from a startup competitor. Josh.ai has aimed to build out a niche in the space by building a smart assistant product that’s designed to be professionally installed alongside other smart home wares and they announced a new product this afternoon.

The device, Josh Nano, fully buys into a more luxury home-focused niche with a low-profile device that appears to be a little bit bigger than a half-dollar, though the bulk of the device is embedded into the wall itself and wired back to a central unit via power-over-ethernet. The device bundles a set of four microphones eschewing any onboard speaker, instead opting to integrate directly with a user’s at-home sound system. Josh boasts compatibility with most major AV receiver manufacturers in addition to partnerships with companies like Sonos. There isn’t much else to the device, a light for visual feedback, a multi-purpose touch sensor, and a physical switch to cut power to the onboard microphones in case users want extra peace of mind.

Image via Josh.ai

The aim of the new hardware is to hide the smart features of a home and move away from industry standard touch screen hubs with dated interfaces. By stripping down a smart home product to its essential feature, Josh.ai hopes it can push more users to buy in more fully with confidence that subsequent hardware releases won’t render their devices outdated and ugly. The startup is taking pre-orders for the device (available in black and white color options) now and hopes to start shipping early next year.

Powering these devices is a product the company calls Josh Core, a small server which basically acts as a hub for everything Josh talks to in a user’s home, ensuring that interactions between smart home devices can occur locally, minimizing external requests. The startup will also continue selling its previously released Josh Micro which integrates a dedicated speaker into the wall-mounted hardware.

Though Josh.ai partners directly with professional installers on the hardware, the startup has been scaling as a software business, offering consumers a license to their technology on an annual, 5-year or lifetime basis. The price of that license also differs depending on what size home they are working with, with “small” rollouts being classified as homes with fewer than 15 rooms. In terms of hardware costs, Josh.ai says that pricing varies but for most jobs, the average cost for users works out to be something like $500 per room.

Massive tech companies naturally design their products for massive audiences. For startups like Josh.ai this fact provides an in-road to design products that aren’t built for the common needs of a billion users. In fact, the selling point for plenty of their customers comes largely from the fact that they aren’t buying devices from Google, Amazon or Apple and hard-wiring microphones that feed back to them inside their home.

Though 95% of the startup’s business today focuses on residential, going forward, the company is also interested in scaling how their tech can be used in commercial scenarios like conference rooms or even elevators, the startup tells me.

Smart home startup Josh.ai raises $11 million to offer a home assistant alternative to Alexa

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