Daily Crunch - Scaled Robotics wins the Startup Battlefield

TechCrunch Newsletter [TechCrunch logo]( [The Daily Crunch logo]( Thursday, December 12, 2019 • By Anthony Ha Happy Thursday Hello from Disrupt Berlin, where we’ve just named the winner at our latest Startup Battlefield! We’ve also got news about Conductor leaving WeWork, Google releasing data on top searches and VW investing in a lidar startup. Here’s your Daily Crunch for December 12, 2019. [And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2019 is… Scaled Robotics]( At the very beginning, there were 14 startups. After two days of fierce competition, we have a winner. Scaled Robotics has designed a robot that can produce 3D progress maps of construction sites in minutes, precise enough to detect that a beam is just a centimeter or two off. Supervisors can then use the software to check things like which pieces are in place on which floor, whether they have been placed within the required tolerances or if there are safety issues like too much detritus on the ground in work areas. [Read more]( [And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2019 is… Scaled Robotics image] [How the fastest restaurants have evolved to make your life easier.]( Sponsored by [Adyen]( [Today’s quickest restaurants offer customers a higher level of service thanks to the newest innovations in payments. Check out the tools they’re using to make checkout an easy, flexible, and fun part of the newest customer experiences.]( [Read more]( [Conductor execs buy their company back from WeWork]( It’s been less than two years since WeWork announced the acquisition of SEO and content marketing company Conductor, but those two years have been bumpy, to say the least. So it’s no surprise that Conductor is being sold — not to another company, but to its own CEO and co-founder Seth Besmertnik, COO Selina Eizik and investor Jason Finger (managing partner of The Finger Group and founder of Seamless). [Read more]( [‘Disney Plus’ was Google’s top US trending search term in 2019]( In the U.S., Disney’s new streaming service “Disney Plus” was the biggest search trend of 2019, followed by Cameron Boyce, Nipsey Hussle, Hurricane Dorian, Antonio Brown, Luke Perry, Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones, iPhone 11 and Jussie Smollet. [Read more]( [‘Disney Plus’ was Google’s top US trending search term in 2019 image] Image Credits: Getty Images [Aeva snags VW investment with smaller, longer-range lidar]( Lidar startup Aeva has deepened its relationship with VW Group. It’s also worth noting that this is the only lidar company that Porsche SE — a majority voting shareholder of the Volkswagen Group — has made an investment in to date. [Read more]( [Bill.com’s IPO pricing is good news for unprofitable startups]( Following the WeWork IPO mess, concerns arose that growth-oriented companies might struggle to drum up investor interest when going public. Bill.com’s offering makes it plain that not all loss-making companies are equal. [Read more]( [Bill.com’s IPO pricing is good news for unprofitable startups image] Image Credits: Somyot Techapuwapat / EyeEm / Getty Images [Robinhood lets you invest as little as 1 cent in any stock]( Robinhood is launching fractional share trading this week. This lets you buy 0.000001 shares, rounded to the nearest penny, or just $1 of any stock, with zero fee. [Read more]( [Chatbots spotlight machine learning’s trillion-dollar potential]( NDS Cognitive Labs CEO Gustavo Parés argues that chatbots provide significant evidence for AI’s positive impact on both business growth and employment markets. (Extra Crunch membership required.) [Read more]( [Read more stories on TechCrunch.com]( Newest Jobs from Crunchboard - [Software Developer (Front End) at Court Innovations (Ann Arbor, MI, USA)]( - [Senior Controls Test Engineer at Google (Chicago, IL, USA)]( - [Senior Frontend Web Developer at Atlantic Media (Washington D.C., DC, USA)]( - [Informatics Analyst II, Development Sciences Informatics at Genentech, Inc. (Campbell)]( - [Information Security Technologist at Human Rights Watch (New York, USA)]( [See more jobs on CrunchBoard]( [Post your tech jobs]( and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( [Flipboard]( [View this email online in your browser]( [Privacy Policy]( | [Do Not Sell My Personal Information]( | [Terms of Service]( | [Unsubscribe]( © 2019 Verizon Media. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103