Technology
PayPal Ventures donates $20 million to Gynger, which offers companies a “buy now, pay later” option to purchase technology
Gynger, a platform that lends capital to companies to purchase technology, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures, TechCrunch reported exclusively.
The financing brings the New York startup’s total enterprise capital to $31.7 million and includes participation from Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI-focused enterprise fund), Velvet Sea Ventures, BAG Ventures and Deciens Capital.
In addition to increasing equity capital, Swings finalized a $25 million loan from Community Investment Management (CIM) under an agreement that enables it to borrow up to $100 million in total.
Gynger was incubated in June 2021 with m)x(v Capital, an early-stage enterprise capital fund from New York founded by Mark Ghermezian. Ghermezian also previously founded Braze, a cloud-based customer engagement platform for omnichannel marketing. There, as he told TechCrunch throughout the company’s last raise, he saw how difficult it was to sell software and, then again, how difficult it was for buyers to buy software.
Gynger works with each buyers and sellers of technology. It claims to help companies “finance, pay and manage” all expenses related to purchasing technology, including software, hardware, cloud and infrastructure. It does this by giving companies access to unsecured lines of credit, which Ghermezian says gives them the chance to extend their runway and save money.
Gynger says it uses advanced artificial intelligence and data analytics to underwrite and approve loans for patrons. According to Ghermezian, it mechanically detects technology expenses and recommends financing options that best meet the needs of each buyers and sellers.
The company claims that the appliance process takes lower than 10 minutes and that companies receive credit decisions as soon as the following day “and immediate access to funds once approved” with a number of payment term options. Gynger pays its customers’ suppliers on their behalf, and the shoppers pay them back later. Think of it as a “buy now, pay later” service for companies purchasing technology.
Gynger, then again, offers technology vendors a way to offer built-in financing through its receivables platform, which provides “flexible” payment terms, Ghermezian said.
“This gives suppliers an extremely effective tool for accelerating sales, increasing revenues and reducing key financial indicators,” added Ghermezian. Sellers receive an annual payment from Gynger upfront, while their customer pays Gynger “however they want.”
The market is large, Ghermezian said, pointing to a recent Forrester research report that found global technology spending is anticipated to reach USD 4.7 trillion in 2024
All of those expenses translate into growth for Gynger. According to Ghermezian, revenues increased by greater than 700% 12 months over 12 months. However, sales didn’t start until the second quarter of 2023, so growth is ranging from a small base. Ghermezian said the corporate also increased its customer base fivefold from the previous 12 months. He declined to release hard revenue numbers, saying only the corporate was on a “clear near-term path to profitability.” To date, Gynger has enabled 1000’s of payments for its customers from lots of of providers, including AWS, Google Cloud, Okta, Cisco, Salesforce, HubSpot, Oracle, GitHub, Snowflake, and Amplitude.
Like all companies operating on the BNPL business model, the corporate charges interest on its loans and likewise earns money from buyers from loan origination fees in addition to interchange fees under its card program. It also generates revenue from vendors in the shape of service fees, and plans to generate revenue from SaaS/platform fees later this 12 months, according to Ghermezian.
At the time of the corporate’s latest raise, Ghermezian told TechCrunch that he saw Gynger competing closely with fintechs like Pipe and Capchase, which started off by providing companies with financing beyond equity and enterprise debt. For its part, Capchase expanded its offer to “buy now, pay later” in May 2023 after the launch of Capchase Pay. But today, Ghermezian said he not sees the companies as competitors. There are companies that do a few of what Gynger does. Some of them, like Tropic, Zip and Vendr, have gone the SaaS procurement route, Ghermezian also noted. There are also companies like Brex and Ramp that supply corporate expense cards to use for purchases, including technology. However, he believes that Gynger’s most important competitor is Bill.com.
The company currently employs 25 employees, up from 13 a 12 months ago.
Gynger will use its recent capital to scale its operations and finance loans.
“As we mature, we see our customer base growing, from early-stage startups to more mature companies, from Series A to pre-IPO,” Ghermezian said. “We also tap into other industries outside of technology, such as real estate, retail, healthcare and artificial intelligence.”
PayPal Ventures managing partner James Loftus believes Gynger’s model gives it a “unique advantage.”
“We believe that embedding payments and financing in both the buying and selling process for SaaS will allow Gynger to create tremendous network effects and create deep relationships that will ultimately enable the company to realize its goal of becoming the next big AR (accounts receivable)/ AP (accounts with suppliers),” he said. “Access to built-in financial solutions that ‘work’ for both buyers and sellers simply didn’t exist at scale until Gynger.”
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Technology
It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
Technology
Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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