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3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 267
News 1. The Org for org chart first, then compete with LinkedIn
The Org is a site where companies can post their organisation chart — completing LinkedIn default of showing the companies’ organisation. Sequoia and others put $20 million into The Org. The Org gathers data about company org charts and employees. The need? Employees can tell about their department, their jobs; companies can add job advertising in the “holes” on the charts. Opinion: Difficult to describe The Org! We are used to secret and always changing organisation charts in companies, but The Org bets on growing companies that are looking for many new employees.
Give it a try and be part of (may be) a new LinkedIn.
News 2. Callin, the better Clubhouse
The hype behind the live audio app Clubhouse slowed down. Then comes Callin, a kind of “better Clubhouse”. The app is for listeners (listen to audio cast live or on demand) and above all for creators (Callin offers the tool to broadcast live, record and edit as a podcast). Opinion: This venture was worth $12 million for Sequoia. Just downloaded the app — well crafted, but few content on “business” and “technology”. And very much for the US market.
That will be a tough job to impose Callin as the place for audio.
News 3. Xentral is the discreet competitor to big SAP neighbour
Xentral is a business software, an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution for middle to small enterprises. Sequoia and other investors like Tiger Glogal have put €93 million funding in total. A family story from Claudia and Benedikt Sauter founding and growing the company. Opinion: We’ve always wanted to report about Xentral (we are based in Hamburg and Berlin, in Germany and have a close look at what’s happening here). Apart from the financing round, Xentral has been discreetly on the market. Too discreet to compete with big neighbour SAP?
ERP software needs competition, Xentral is key for that.
Author is the research team (10 trend scouters) at specialist Space and Lemon Innovations (Hamburg, Berlin) — scouting innovations in main tech geographies, AI development, virtual worlds and e-commerce. Excerpts of research are gathered here in original weekly news since 2016, always with an opinion — no re-write of TechCrunch.
Come back next Monday and share your opinion.