Category: Tech

Financial Identities’ Cassbana Raises 6 Digits USD

Cassbana, a financial identities’ startup, announced raising a pre-seed round of 6 digits USD to revolutionize the financial service industry in emerging markets.

Disrubtech, a US$25million Fintech fund, led the investment round among other investors. Disrubtech was established by Mohamed Okasha, Fawry’s co-founder and former managing director.

Since it was launched in June 2020, Cassbana has managed to gain significant grounds in the Egyptian market with its instant financial identity Android app. The app is designed to enable suppliers and merchants to sell their products to their customers through short-term loans allowing them to serve Egypt’s largely financially underserved market.

Speaking to Haitham Nassar, Cassbana’s Founder CEO and former Careem Planning Director in Egypt, he pointed out what makes Cassbana essentially different from any “Fintech” initiative or startup.

He says, “The entire point behind Cassbana is to create financial identities for the underserved in Egypt where shadow economy is almost double or triple the size of the formal economy, Cassbana is used to assist suppliers and merchants in making better, less biased decisions and helping them take more impactful and real-time decisions using our technologies.”

Haitham Nassar- Cassbana Founder& CEO
“These financial identities will help the suppliers and merchants to take a proper decision on how they can serve their customers, especially those unbanked, and allow them to find funding through alternative means.”

Putting the Tech in Fintech
The platform relies on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to gather certain behavioral data points that, in turn, develop patterns. These patterns will help financial institutions detect fraud better while allowing the non-fraudulent borrowers to be seen and supported, and more importantly, banked beyond the expected stack of documents.

The market entry for Cassbana relies heavily on the supply chain market as it is an easy entry for small sellers defaulting to suppliers constantly, and suppliers are eager to have a tool in place to allow them to make proper decisions when they borrow their customers. Instead of defaulting on their wholesale merchandise, they purchase the products needed in installments to keep the business going.

“If a seller needs merchandise worth 5000 EGP but can’t afford it, chances are they will either close up shop or search for a supplier who can give it to him on installments. Cassbana uses the power of community to support micro-businesses with an instant decision-making tool. It allows the suppliers to immediately decide whether to sell such products on installments to the merchant or not, which helps keep them afloat while using the data points to grow our data banks,” Haitham says.

“So in a short time, any supplier, merchant, or financial institution looking into micro-lending will have a data bank of financial identities to offer low-risk loans to those who truly deserve it.” He adds.

With a team of data analysts and machine learning experts, Cassbana also focuses on the tech part of Fintech, with plans to use the funding to grow its tech team further and develop the algorithms.

The Cassbana Equation for Financial Inclusion
Serving Financial Inclusion
Haitham notes Egypt’s bid for Financial Inclusion.

“While Egypt’s financial and regulatory entities strive wonderfully to bank the unbanked, Cassbana has come out to offer an alternative, reliable, fraud-free way of offering solutions that enable suppliers and merchants to finance their customers.”

“Maybe it is time we started seeing shadow businesses differently, and it is our duty to help them become registered, taxed, and growing in a healthy financial ecosystem. besides, it helps shadow economy players to take proper financial decisions based on our technologies.”

January 6, 2021
How to screenshot on mac, change screenshots folder
In case your workflow requires taking frequent screenshots on Mac, you will need to know three widespread keyboard shortcuts and a fourth if you own a MacBook with a touch bar.

Apple offers you a variety of methods to make, save, delete, and open a screenshot.

More like this: How to screenshot on an iPad?

The entire screenshot on Mac = Command+Shift+3

This keyboard shortcut captures a screenshot of your entire screen.

Partial screenshot on Mac = Command+Shift+4

Furthermore, Use this keyboard combo to turn your cursor into a crosshair, which you can drag to select a part of your screen to capture. Release the mouse button or trackpad to take the shot.

You have several other options after hitting Shift-Command-4:

Press and release the space bar: The cursor turns into a little camera icon, which you can move over any open window. Click on your desired window to take a screenshot of it. A screenshot captured by this method features a white border around the window with a bit of a drop shadow.

Press and hold the space bar (after dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse button or trackpad). This locks in the shape and size of the selection area but lets you reposition it on the screen.

It’s convenient if your initial selection area is off by a few pixels. Hold down the space bar to reposition it before releasing the mouse button to snap a screenshot.

Hold down the Shift key: (after dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse button or trackpad). This locks in each side of the selection area made with the crosshairs save the bottom edge, letting you move your mouse up or down to position the bottom edge.

Without releasing the mouse button, release the Shift key and hit it again to reposition the right edge of your selection area. You can toggle between moving the bottom edge and straight edge by keeping the mouse button or touchpad engaged and pressing the Shift key.

Command+Shift+5

Command+shift+5

This shortcut command was introduced in macOS Mojave (2018). This combination calls up a small panel at the bottom of your display with your screen capture options. Three screenshot buttons let you capture the entire screen, a window, or a selection of your screen.

Likewise, the two video-recording buttons let you record your entire screen or a selection of it. On the left is an X button to close the screenshot panel, but you can also hit the Escape key to exit.

On the right side is an Options button. It lets you choose where to save your screenshot. Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, or Preview. Set a 5- or 10-second delay so you can line up items that might otherwise disappear when you engage your screenshot tool.

By default, the “Show Floating Thumbnail” option is enabled. It puts a little preview thumbnail of your captured screenshot in the lower-right corner of your screen. Unlike your iPhone, you can turn off this preview thumbnail on your Mac. You can choose to show your mouse pointer in a screenshot or video.

If the screenshot panel is in your way, you can grab its left edge and drag it to a new spot on your screen.

Screenshot on Macs with Touch Bar = Command+Shift+6

Besides, If you’ve got a MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar, did you know you can take a screenshot of what’s currently showing on the Touch Bar? Just hit Command-Shift-6 to take a very wide and skinny screenshot of your Touch Bar.

Touch Bar Shot

Quick annotation

If you noticed the Floating Thumbnails, then you’ll gain quick access to Markup tools to annotate your screenshot. You can swipe the Floating Thumbnail away or let it slip away on its own, and it’ll be saved to the spot you last saved a screenshot. Click the Floating Thumbnail, and it’ll open in a Markup View preview window (but not Preview) with all the markup tools you get in Preview.

In addition to editing the screenshot, you can also right-click the Floating Thumbnail to:
- Save the screenshot to your desktop, Documents folder, or clipboard.
- Open it in Mail, Messages, Preview, or Photos.
- Show in Finder
- Delete
- Open in the Markup preview window described above.
- Close (and save)
Right-click the Floating Thumbnail

Longtime Mac screenshots may be slow to adopt the new Command-Shift-5 shortcut. Yet, I find myself using it more to annotate screenshots without opening previews and deleting screenshots. The 5- and 10-second delay options are also useful and appreciated additions.

Change screenshots folder

For macOS Mojave or later, you can press Command+Shift+5 to enter the screen capture panel, click on Options, and choose “Other Location” to choose a destination.

Read more

How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone?
January 2, 2021
BREAKING: Google Workspace is DOWN

While there are still no official announcements at the time of posting, we can report that almost all Google Workspace suite services such as Email, Meet, and Drive are down.

According to the Google Status dashboard, all the following services are currently down:

Google Workspace Status Dashboard

The story is still developing.

December 14, 2020
LCP Fund II acquires significant minority stake in Dsquares & Lucky

As its first investment in the market, Lorax Capital Partners Fund II has announced today that it has acquired a significant minority stake in DSQ Group (Umbrella company of Dsquares and Lucky).

LCP’s investment includes a capital increase to support scaling and expansion plans for the mother company within the region and worldwide.

DSQ Group owns and operates Dsqaures, the leading loyalty and rewards solutions provider across MENA and Central Europe, currently serving over 100 million customers through around 45 regional and international clients.

Also, Algebra Ventures, an Egypt-based VC firm and an existing shareholder in DSQ Group, announced it had increased its investment as part of the aforementioned transaction.

LCP has also acquired the minority stake of Ezdehar Management in Dsquares. Ezdehar had originally invested in Dsquares back in 2018, which gave it a 22.5 percent stake.

Founded in 2012 by Marwan Kenawy, Ayman Essawy, and Momtaz Moussa, Dsquares is a full-service loyalty solutions provider in the Middle East & Africa. It operates the full spectrum of customer loyalty for clients from technical, operational, and commercial aspects, which helps clients increase and capitalize on customer loyalty and retention. The startup boasts a large spectrum of key industry players in banking and finance, FMCG, and Telecommunications, among other industries.

The DSQ group also owns Lucky, an app built to offer everyday clients a wide range of discounts from retail brands, which now has over 5 million downloads under its belt, not to mention a varied collection of brands.

According to the press release, Marwan Kenawy, Co-founder & CEO of Dsquares, said, “The LCP partnership and investment will help Dsquares expedite its clients and merchants expansion plans in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe and maintain its position as the loyalty & rewards solutions leader in the region.”

While Ayman Essawy, Co-founder & COO, added: “Lucky continues to be very successful in attracting new users as well as increasing engagement of its existing user base. Egypt is our first market, and we have plans to further expand our services across relevant markets in the Middle East & Africa. We believe that this strategic partnership with LCP will put both Dsquares & Lucky on the right track to achieve their future goals.”

Al Tamimi Law Firm acted as the legal advisor to LCP on the deal, while the company’s legal advisor was Youssef & Partners.

December 6, 2020
Sidekick browser makes work apps more comfortable to access

Sidekick is an alternative web browser that makes work apps more comfortable to access. It offers a left-hand sidebar, where you can pin icons of your work services in the sidebar, even if they are web services that do not have apps.

It’s an app dock for your browser that lets you load your favorite sites without having to open them as browser tabs.

The Sidekick browser is based on Chromium, the same open-source code that Google uses for Chrome, so it also supports all the same browser extensions.

ProductHunt featured Sidekick as the product of the day last week.

After installing Sidekick, you can add new apps by hitting the “+” icon in the sidebar. To make the sidebar smaller to fit more apps on the screen, click the gear icon, then adjust the “sidebar size” slider.

Sidekick browser

Sidekick also uses your browser history to provide shortcuts within each web app. Right-clicking the Google Sheets icon, for instance, brings up a list of recent Sheets to open. Right-clicking on Twitter lets you jump into a specific username or page you’ve already viewed before. And for those websites you do open as browser tabs, Sidekick will remember them, so you can close the browser without losing your progress.

Sidekick is free to use, but an $8-per-month Pro subscription is required if you want to have multiple workspaces with their app docks, such as personal apps and another for work.

The browser allows you to block ads for all or specific websites; it also suspends unused tabs to save your machine’s memory, so no more heating ups like Chrome or other browsers.

It has a built-in Notes system, so you can easily carry and save it into your browser for easy access whenever you want to take a note.

What differentiates Sidekick?

Today, anyone’s work and personal life is a fight between browser tabs. Staying organized gets out of control with multiple windows, tabs, and pop-ups which, let’s face it, kills the battery and does nothing but distractions. We love that SideKick doesn’t refresh tabs you haven’t been using or looking at, minimizing CPU usage and keeping your desktop focused. Who doesn’t need that?

Block trackers

Sidekick doesn’t have an ad-based business model so that we can block ads and trackers without compromise.

AI-based tab suspension

Sidekick saves memory by automatically suspending tabs that you don’t need at the moment.

Improved tab memory management

Sidekick uses significantly less memory when you work with similar tabs.

Destroy tab clutter with Sessions

Stop wasting time with bookmarks. As you work, Sidekick automatically saves your open tabs as a session. You can quickly start a new session from our side panel or open all the saved session tabs.

Search all your work instantly

Call upon Sidekick’s built-in search bar with a single shortcut. Search across all your apps, tabs, and workspaces in seconds. Never fumble through your browser history again.

And many more useful features for better productivity.

One look at the list of companies currently using Sidekick shows where they’re headed, from Slack to Facebook and Microsoft. This is quickly becoming a digital guru’s batman.

Also, this article was researched, written, and published using Sidekick. We are feeling the love at Digital Boom.

December 6, 2020
8 Tools Every New Business Needs
Are you wondering which tools you should be using for your new business?

If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Because there are tools for every job, especially when it comes to working online.

But if you choose the wrong ones, your business could miss valuable opportunities, and the results could be costly.

The good news, you don’t have to pick them at random because we’ve put together a selection of 8 tools every new business needs.

We’ll look at tools ranging from social media monitoring to slick video-making platforms and provide you with insights to determine which ones will work best for your business.

1. Mention Monitoring

Social media offers new businesses an opportunity to gain an affordable foothold in their marketplace, but only if you are consistently up-to-date with what is being said about you and by whom.

Mention Monitoring is a tool that enables businesses like yours to monitor what’s happening online, so you can listen to your audience and update your social media as it happens. These are the main features:
- Social media monitoring: Mention monitors over one billion sources daily from across the web, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, review websites, blogs, news, and social media forums, so you can uncover conversational trends and analyze data about your business and market place.
- Scheduling calendar: Pre-plan your social media strategies and content release times using their multi-channel editorial scheduling calendar.
- Audience insights: That will help you build your media strategies based on the latest audience insights.
- Competition analysis: Monitor what people are saying about your competition.
  Brand management: Know how your brand is perceived online, and respond in real-time when needed.
2. Tailor Brands Logo Maker

Every business needs to establish a connection with its customers; this is why you must create a brand. But it’s impossible without a visual vocal point that runs throughout all your marketing platforms, creating a cohesion that customers will come to know and trust; this is why you need a professionally designed logo.

The Tailor Brands logo maker helps you do just that with remarkable ease; click one, two, three, and you’re done!

Their AI algorithm asks you for details about your business and marketplace, you then choose your design preferences, and the logo-making tool will create a logo based on your decisions. It’s fully customizable with infinitive revisions, and you only pay when you’re happy with the result.

3. Google Analytics

For any business to succeed, you must first gain a deep understanding of your customers.

Google Analytics provides you everything you need to know about your viewers and your website. Together, this information enables you to adapt your strategies accordingly, so you can optimize every piece of content you put online, providing you with the maximum ROI.

Here are some of its features:
- Website visitor statistics
- Visitors location
- What pages they visit
- What they’re searching for on your website
- What content they click on the most
- Lowest performing page identification
- Online campaign traffic conversion statistics
4. Name Check

Before you jump in and choose your domain name, save yourself time and heartache by checking if it’s available using the free name check tool.

It checks every corner of the web, from brand names, apps, and trademarked terms, providing you with a detailed outline of your chosen name’s availability; it’s fast, it’s free, it’s perfect for a new business.

5. MailChimp Email

Email marketing is still one of the leading marketing strategies for boosting brand recognition, increasing community followings, and providing, on average, a $30 return on every $1 spent, but it doesn’t happen automatically!

Well, that used to be the case, but now we have MailChimp; their service provides you with a range of innovative email marketing tools all under the same roof. Some of their platform features are:
- Audience Management
- Marketing CRM (customer relation management)
- Creativity Tools
- Marketing Automation
- Insights & Analytics
- Email templates
- Landing page templates
As far as email marketing goes, Mailchimp is pretty much the king of the jungle.

6. Magisto Video Editor

The speed at which consumers turn to social media to fulfill their shopping needs is, at the moment, exceeding technologies’ ability to meet them. But this will soon change with the rise of AI. But for now, it’s all about imagery, especially video.

Consumers no longer accept a pixelated image with some blatant sales pitch beneath advertising their product of desire; they want high-quality video.

Magisto enables you to give it to them. Their online video editing platform provides you with access to a comprehensive media library, free music, all fully customizable, and allows you to upload your images and videos to suit your business’s video needs. It also has lead generation capabilities so that you can turn views into leads.

Video is no longer the future of personal branding, it’s the present, and Magisto’s tool enables you to take full advantage of this opportunity.

7. Hootsuite Social Scheduling

Monitoring what people are saying about your business on social media (AKA Mention) is only one part of the equation for online success; the other is having the ability to manage, schedule, and track your content.

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool, enabling businesses to manage, track, and schedule their social media content’s online engagement across a range of social media profiles. With over 18 million customers, they can deliver the global-scale insights every business needs to succeed.

Their open platform seamlessly integrates with a host of other popular tools, like Google Drive, Adobe, Salesforce, and Dropbox. With apps such as Talkwalker, and Brandwatch, both of which provide social analytical statistics, you always have the insights you require.

8. Asana Project Management

As planning systems become ever more popular for personal achievement, organizational tools are equally essential for successfully branding your business.

Asana planning tool helps you keep your team and brand on track. You can organize your entire schedule, from setting tasks, assigning team members or groups, enable in-house online collaboration, and set due dates and reminders.

Success is due partly to visualization. Asana provides you with the means of keeping a clear picture so you can stay focused and motivated.

Conclusion

We’ve covered tools ranging from free name check, insightful website analytical data, social media monitoring, content management, scheduling systems, advanced AI logo makers, master-class video editing platforms, innovative email marketing tools, and project management software systems.

By using some, if not all, of the tools discussed today, you’ll equip yourself with a fully loaded toolbox.

Your next step is to assess your business needs and apply those tools. All are easy to use and affordable for new businesses. If you don’t, you might be left wondering why your business didn’t succeed!
October 29, 2020
Foundation Ventures powers up with 4 new investments

Cairo – Foundation Ventures (FV) is a regional venture capital firm founded in 2019 and is managed by Mazen Nadim, Omar Barakat, and Ziyad Hamdy, in partnership with HOF Capital, a US-based VC firm, and BPE Partners, Egypt’s leading private equity company.

Foundation Ventures (FV) backs the best-in-class founders building high-impact new technology companies.

FV aims to add value with its investment strategy revolving around leveraging the resources of its Limited Partners and Enterprise Partners allowing companies to unlock immediate growth.

The network includes some leading enterprises across a wide range of industries that help the portfolio companies expand their geographical and market reach, product offering, access to industry experts and leaders, and business development.

By working closely with the founders, FV is also able to support the startups’ fundraising activities.

Foundation Ventures’ first fund is focused on early-stage investments ranging from Pre-Seed to Series A.

The fund is backed by some of the largest family offices and business leaders from Egypt and the MENA region.

The strategy is the first of its kind in Egypt, utilizing local know-how and private capital to support & build solid foundations for its portfolio.

FV has Lead and Co-Lead four highly sought after deals during its initial deployment, investing in two Fintech companies, Capiter & Nowpay, one in consumer internet/entertainment, Minly, and one in logistics (operating in stealth).

FV is pleased to have co-invested alongside an exceptional syndicate of 12 regional and international VCs.

October 27, 2020
instaConsult Launches Personal Consultation via Whatsapp

In this age, technology can literally be injected into your skin. So don’t expect this to be a far topic. Actually, we’re utilizing technology to fetch you the best global consultants to help you make life decisions easier and your daily life happier.

The new-normal after Covid-19 forced everything to be online. So we decided you better leverage the good part of it in your favor.

Anyone can be an influencer.

It’s quite challenging for public figures and influencers to develop their own consultation management system, integrate billing methods, have customer support, and integrate all that on a Facebook page or auto-reply messages.

InstaConsult allows public figures and professionals on social media to monetize their regular messaging and on-phone voice conversations with fans via a managed platform. Including family counselors, health specialists, marriage & parenting counselors, psychologists, life coaches, community leaders, nutritionists & healing with energy experts, fitness & sports professionals, motivational speakers, investors, tech geeks.

Basically, anyone who has the talent and loves to inspire people! Millennials can really enhance their lifestyle and get instantaneous messages or calls consultations from their favorite influencers.

InstaConsult provided +1000 consultations through more than +50 experienced counselors and influencers since its launch at the beginning of 2020

Want to be an influencer? Join our community now! m.me/InstaConsult.me

Community and Audience

Reach your favorite star, right on Whatsapp, with a simple user interface. Anytime anywhere, just a few tabs. Message a physiotherapist, call an investor to pitch, record a song to a famous composer, or even ask for free support from abroad COVID-expert!

Instaconsult eases influencers’ reachability with its cost-effective methods that can instantly put you in contact with your favorite influencers.

End-to-end WhatsApp Communication

WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication platforms, connecting more than 2 billion users worldwide. WhatsApp ensures privacy and provides smart integration with billing, which ensures professionals and end-user privacy.

BOT vs. Humanoid

Developing an automated chatbot or simply BOT is no longer a challenge. But establishing a smart fusion with human customer support is the true challenge. InstaConsult support their professionals with 24/7 human support whenever needed right WhatsApp

So WhatsApp plays a vital role; it connects the user to the right agent at the right time almost instantly without interrupting his experience.

Personal Branding

Unlike other consultation platforms that can not be personally branded due to branding conflicts, country policies, app store rules, or communication style. InstaConsult allows each public figure to personalize his own account, control price, and style his own reply method via text and voice.

Branding and communication through InstaConsult are smooth. Using API techniques, telephone voice, Whatsapp, and online communication. Each counselor has his own personal branded display URL, like Sara. Consulting.

This link can be used directly anywhere on a public figure social media account, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. You can also choose to communicate your own personal brand with cost-effective methods to reach personal branding growth, revenue generation, and fans monetization.

A Guaranteed Investment

Too many VoIP technologies face challenges in the Middle East; however, normal on-voice telephony remains one of the most stable communication mediums.

Instaconsult provides a smart fusion between WhatsApp Business API capabilities and CPaaS or Cloud Platform as a Service. Voice telecommunication allows every public figure to have his own unique telephone number, just like a hotline.

InstaConsult is rolling out the most innovative and on-demand voice consultation in the Middle East to reach a worldwide scale. Built by ex-google, ex-Microsoft, engineers, and social media experts in San Francisco, Jordan, and Cairo.

Competitive Edge

While other platforms have a common approach for all counselors, either a landing page on a website, a mobile app, or a hotline, InstaConsult provides every public figure with a unique telephone number, which can be used literally everywhere! Starting from his own business card until his LinkedIn profile.

October 15, 2020
What is a Burn Rate and Why Should Startups Care?

For early-stage startups, having cash is essential to staying afloat. But it’s one thing to have money and another to know how to spend and manage it. According to CB insights, 29% of startups fail because they run out of cash. That’s where the importance of cash burn comes in.

Understanding the burn rate of your startup and learning how to manage and monitor your cash runway is an essential element for survival and growth in the business world. Here’s why startups should pay special attention to their burn rate.

Burn Rate Measures Startup Longevity

A burn rate is essentially the rate in which a startup or company uses its cash, and indicates how a company is spending its funding to finance overheads before generating revenues from its operations.

Think of cash burn like the hourglass that measures how long your company has before it runs out of money. So, unless you want to risk spending too much too fast, you’ll want to pay attention to that cash flow.

To calculate your burn rate for a specific time, deduct your current cash balance from your starting cash balance. If your company, for example, started with $1M in the bank and spends $100k a month, its burn rate would be $100k.

[Burn Rate = Starting Cash Balance – Cash Balance in Current Month/in a specific period]

Cash Burn Rate

Cash runway is the metric that determines how long your cash will last at your current burn rate – basically how long your company has before it runs out of money if the burn rate remains constant. Your cash runway is your cash reserves divided by your monthly burn rate.

[Cash Runway = Starting Cash Balance / Burn Rate]

Going back to the previous example, if you have $1M in your cash reserves, and your burn rate is $100k per month, you will run out of cash in 10 months ($1M divided by $100k).

Cash runway is a significant concern for venture-backed startups who are using the cash to build the business, as they either need to become cash flow-positive or close another funding round before they run out of money.

The cash runway metric is also being used to measure how fast mature businesses are growing their cash reserves or whether they are investing that money to fund more rapid growth.

Why is Cash Burn important:

It helps you anchor startup expenses.

Cash burn affects a company’s financial runway and the amount of money it has in the bank. Startups can manage their burn rate by monitoring their cash flow, the metric that shows how much money you’re making versus how much money you’re spending. When monitoring your cash flow, you should identify where to reduce expenses and operating costs to prolong your financial runway.

Affects investors’ decisions

Burn rate identifies a company’s likelihood to enter financial distress. Your burn rate performance can affect your next investment round in many ways. It could prompt investors to either inject more capital into a company so that it starts generating revenues, or set specific deadlines for startups to make revenues. If you spend aggressively, you risk running out of money and losing your cash reserves before you make enough progress in raising another investment round.

Not all high burn is bad.

A high burn rate is not always a red flag. For fast-growing startups, a strategic burn rate that aims at gaining market share, winning customers and generating higher profits is essential for growth and attracting investors than a lower burn rate.

When cash burn is alarming.

Let’s take a look at Buenos Dias – a fictional startup as an example. Buenos Dias started with a net cash balance of $10 million in its first year in business. In the first half, the startup spent large amounts on operating activities, office spaces, corporate travels and salaries.

At the end of the first half, Buenos Dias’ cash balance was $7 million, meaning that the net cash burned by the startup amounted to $3 million – a burn rate of roughly $500,000 per month.

Assuming Buenos Dias has no other cash reserves, and its monthly burn rate remains constant, the startup’s runway is 14 months. Buenos Dias will have to take measures to reduce their burn rate, find additional sources of funding, or worst-case scenario cut their losses and seize operations.

How to reduce the cash burn rate?

There are many measures startups can take to reduce their burn rate and avoid running out of cash. Companies can work on increasing their revenues, getting more prospects into their funnel, generating more sales and raising their pricing. Other measures can include reducing operation costs, containing monthly expenses, reducing salaries, deferring new hires and cutting all costs that aren’t contributing to their success.

Businesses go to great lengths every day to control their expenditures and increase their revenues. Understanding how cash burn rate works, analyzing unit economics and cost of growth can help companies make informed decisions about the money they need to raise to cover their burn rate and achieve their goals. Learning to be strategic about how you’re spending your money ensures your success and sustainable growth.

Startups’ founders need Tribal’s spend management dashboard to help them spend wisely, set spending limits and monitor how every dollar is spent so that they are always in control of their expenses.

September 15, 2020
Amber Solutions Secures $5.5 Million in Series B

Amber Solutions, a technology innovator creating a modern hyper-intelligent electrical architecture, announced the completion of a $5.5-million Series B and the securement of three new memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with leading global manufacturers of electrical products, smart automation systems and silicon chips.

These new MOUs now a total of six agreements signed during the COVID-19 lockdown and nine overall for the company noted Amber Founder and CEO Thar Casey.

He also pointed out that this recent financing strengthens the company’s ability to continue refining and productizing its technologies into prototypes and pre-production products for evaluation, manufacturing and shipment by Amber’s growing number industry partners.

“This $5.5-million in financing brings our total raised to over $11-million,” Casey said. “Our strategy is to align with some of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers to power their product lines with our disruptive breakthrough technologies and de facto reposition their competitors as being old and out of date,” said Casey.

“Our raise was precisely what we needed to support the continued scaling of Amber with our expanding technology portfolio and customer agreements,” he explained.

Of Amber’s now nine signed MOUs, one of these partner agreements progressed to a binding agreement with a revenue commitment.

“These agreements serve as a testament to the value and disruptive nature of Amber’s technologies and the growing momentum and industry recognition that we are realizing. The agreements are also tangible examples of the expertise exhibited by our young company’s staff of highly experienced Silicon Valley executives in productizing and commercializing innovation that truly solves industry problems,” Casey emphasized.

The latest round of financing and new customer agreements also come on the heels of Amber’s sixth secured patent, which enables manufacturers to design simpler, better and smaller LED lighting solutions.

Amber’s core patented innovations enable the digital control of electricity in solid-state architecture.

These breakthroughs enable advanced intelligence (machine learning and machine-to-machine control) to be embedded within a programmable solid-state power system with a clear path to an even-smaller silicon chip version.

September 15, 2020