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We&re kicking off Startup Battlefield MENA here in Beirut, where 15 startups will be taking the stage, along with speakers from Facebook (our partner on the event through its FB Start program), Instabug, Eventus, Wuzzuf, Careem and Myki.

For those of you who can&t be here in person, check back on TechCrunch later today, where we&ll be sharing videos and other highlights from the event. And of course, announcing the winner!

For the first time, TechCrunch is holding Startup Battlefield MENA in partnership with FB Start. After scouring does dozens of countries, sifting through hundreds and hundreds of extremely talented startups, TechCrunch selected 15 elite companies across the region to compete in prestigious global Startup Battlefield competition for $25,000 equity-free prize, a trip for 2 to TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 and the coveted title of &Middle East - North AfricaFavorite Startup&.

After weeks of intense coaching from the TC team, these startups are primed for international launch. For the semi-final round, each founder will pitch for 6 minutes, with a live demo on stage, followed by 6 minutes of Q-A with our expert panel of judges. After, our judges will deliberate and 5 teams will be selected to compete in the final round of Startup Battlefield & same pitch, but with an even more intense Q-A.

So, who are these chosen few From creating new forms of fast setting concrete to quickly build houses in areas recovering from natural disasters to agricultural monitoring technology preventing water-related conflict, this batch of companies is truly changing the world. Companies also include financial investment AI platforms, edible insect based protein powder, to culturally relevant dating apps. Founders in the automotive industry are poised to change everything from how we pick the cars we want to buy to how we optimize their maintenance. From innovations to hydroponic gardens, educational tutoring platforms to modernizing technology for hotel chains, Startup Battlefield MENA is set to highlight the regions most promising startups. Videos from the event will be posted on TechCrunch.com after the event. Stay tuned!

Session 1: 9:30am & 10:30am

Buildink,Harmonica,MaterialSolved,MoneyFellows,Neotic AI

Session 2: 11:10am & 12:10am

Nutransa,Seabex by IT Grapes,IN2,Seez,Autotell

Session 3: 1:40pm & 2:40pm

Synkers,Verbose,Makerbrane,Argineering,PureHarvest

Welcome Remarks 9:05 am & 9:25 am

Infrastructure and Connectivity: A Regional Perspective with Imad Kreidieh (Ogero Telecom) and Ari Kesisoglu (Facebook) Access to the internet and connectivity is the driving force for the 4th industrial revolution. Join a conversation about how the Telco industry is changing in Lebanon and the region, and what that means for businesses and consumers. Sponsored by Facebook

9:25 am & 10:30 am

Startup Battlefield Competition & Flight #1 TechCrunchiconic startup competition is here and for the first time in MENA, as entrepreneurs from around the region pitch expert judges and vie for US$25,000 no-equity cash prize and a trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019.

10:30 am & 10:50 am

BREAK 10:50 am & 11:10 am

Jennifer Fong (Facebook) Hear from Facebookhead of the Developer Circles Program about their work with developers, startups and businesses to build, grow, measure, and monetize using Facebook and Messenger platform products. Sponsored by Facebook

11:10 am & 12:10 am

Startup Battlefield Competition & Flight #2 TechCrunchiconic startup competition is here and for the first time in MENA, as entrepreneurs from around the region pitch expert judges and vie for US$25,000 no-equity cash prize and a trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019.

12:10 pm & 1:10 pm

BREAK 12:15 pm & 1:15 pm

Workshop: Automated Driving Mobility in MENA with Mandali Khalesi (Toyota) ToyotaGlobal Head of Automated Driving Mobility and Innovation will share Toyotalatest automated driving research findings and its plans for the future. There will be 30 minutes set aside for consultation, where the audience will have the opportunity to advise Toyota on both how it should go about developing automated driving mobility for MENA, as well as how best to work together with entrepreneurs in the region.

1:15 pm & 1:40 pm

Lessons 10 Years On with Omar Gabr (Instabug), Nour Al Hassan (Tarjama), Mai Medhat (Eventtus) and Ameer Sherif (Wuzzuf) & Moderated by Editor at Large Mike Butcher Ten years ago the Middle East and North Africatech ecosystem was worth perhaps tens of millions of dollars. Today itin the hundreds of millions, and beyond. A decade ago the societal landscape was very different from today. Letdiscuss the huge changes that have happened and challenges and opportunities ahead.

1:40 pm & 2:40 pm

Startup Battlefield Competition & Flight #3 TechCrunchiconic startup competition is here and for the first time in MENA, as entrepreneurs from around the region pitch expert judges and vie for US$25,000 no-equity cash prize and a trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019.

2:40 pm & 3:00 pm

Fireside Chat with Magnus Olsson (Careem) & Moderated by Managing Editor Matt Burns How do you scale a big startup in MENA We hear from Magnus Olsson, founder and Managing Director of ride-hailing giant Careem on how they joined the unicorn club with Lyft and Uber.

3:00 pm & 3:25 pm

Where Will the Exits Come From with Henri Asseliy (Leap Ventures), Priscilla Elora Sharuk (Myki), and Kenza Lahlou (Outlierz Ventures) &Moderated by News Editor Ingrid Lunden Both VCs and startups in MENA alike are furiously building the companies of the future. But you can&t have a startup without an acquisition or IPO, so where are they going to come from We&ll hear from both the founder and investor perspectives.

3:25 pm & 4:40 pm

Startup Battlefield Competition & Final Round TechCrunchiconic startup competition is here and for the first time in MENA, as entrepreneurs from around the region pitch expert judges and vie for US$25,000 no-equity cash prize and a trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019.

4:40 pm & 4:55 pm

BREAK 4:55 pm & 5:20 pm

MENA Content Plays with Paul Chucrallah (BeryTech Fund), Hussam Hammo (Tamatem) and Rami Al Qawasmi (Mawdoo3) &Moderated by News Editor Ingrid Lunden A little-known fact about the MENA market is the sheer lack of Arabic language content online for consumers, whether it be media, music, games or events. Arabic-specific sites have appeared, tailor-made to the market. We&ll get the perspective of key entrepreneurs in this space.

5:20 pm & 5:35 pm

Startup Battlefield Closing Awards Ceremony Watch the crowning of the latest winner of the Startup Battlefield

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A federal judge denied Tesla motion to dismiss charges in a lawsuit claiming that it mistreated foreign workers. This means the automaker will have to defend itself at trial against allegations that foreign workers at its Fremont factory worked shifts that violated forced labor laws and were threatened with deportation if they reported injuries.

The ruling comes just a few days after Elon Musk agreed to resign as Teslachairman (while staying on as its CEO) to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC filed a complaint in federal district court last week charging Musk with fraud related to his tweets in August that he planned to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

In a ruling made on Monday, Judge Lucy Koh of California Northern District Court in San Jose dismissed five out of seven claims in the lawsuit, Lesnik v. Eisenmann SE (case number 5:16-cv-01120), and denied motions to dismiss from Tesla subcontractors Eisenmann Corp and ISM Vuzem.

Other vehicle makers (Mercedes-Benz, Deere, REHAU, LaX, Volkswagen, Dicastal, and BMW) were also named as defendants, but dismissed because they aren&t included in the two claims that will go to trial.

The class action lawsuit was filed in 2016 by Gregor Lesnik, from Slovenia, and Stjepan Papes, from Croatia, on behalf of foreign workers covered by B-1 visas. Both Lesnik and Papes were hired by ISM Vuzem and sent to the U.S. to work at TeslaFremont facility. The suit alleges that foreign workers were paid far below minimum wage and worked &extreme hours.&

Lesnik claims that he typically worked 12 hours a day and never less than 10 hours, over 80 hours a week, adding up to more than 240 hours a month, but only received one day off every two weeks, in violation of forced labor laws.

When Lesnik was too sick to work or reported a job injury, the suit alleges Vuzem threatened to withhold pay or visa and immigration benefits. Koh rejected arguments that Tesla and Eisenmann are not liable for abuses by ISM Vuzem because they benefitted financially.

Teslaauto manufacturing plant in Fremont was scrutinized last year after complaints by employee Jose Moran, which were denied by CEO Elon Musk in a staff email. Earlier this year, CaliforniaDivision of Occupational Safety and Health said it would look into conditions at the factory after Reveal reported that Tesla did not accurately report work injuries, as required by state and federal law (charges Tesla also denied).

While itlabor and safety practices were being criticized, other workers also filed several lawsuits alleging racial discrimination and harassment at the Fremont plant.

TechCrunch has contacted Tesla, Eisenmann and ISM Vuzem for comment.

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This year has been a breakout one for micro-financing startups in Southeast Asia, which are becoming among the most funded within the regionfintech space. Next in line to raise capital is First Circle, an SME-lending service thatbased in the Philippines which has pulled in $26 million as it begins to consider regional expansion options.

The new financing is led by Venturra Capital with participation fromInsignia Ventures Partners, Hong KongSilverhorn Investment Advisors, and Tryb Group.First Circle has previously raised $2.5 million, including a $1.3 million seed round 18 months ago.

The company was founded by Irish duo CEO Patrick Lynch, formerly of CompareAsia Group and CTO Tony Ennis, previously with WebSummit, and the goal is to help small businesses scale by offering them short-term loans. The Philippines is an impact market since SMEs account for 99.6 percent of the countrybusiness, 65 percent of its workforce and a staggering 35 percent of national GDP. Yet, thereno formal credit scoring system and existing loan coverage is patchy at best.

Most of First Circle loans are often transaction or working capital, such as financing to take on a new deal for a client with a guaranteed financial return that requires a fairly brutal wait of 90-120 days, Lynch told TechCrunch in an interview.

&A lack of access to capital is aproblem that faces tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of businesses in the Philippines,& he explained. &Emerging markets are not capital developed, and our business model is quite different from the p2p lender model in that we do share risk with the investors.&

First Circle sources capital from third parties, includingasset managers and family offices, who take half of the loan book. Unlike the P2P model, which is going through a spectacular crash in China,First Circle is invested in all deals and as such it does thorough due diligence before committing. However, after processing over $100 million in deals to &thousands& of businesses, Lynch said that the company has built up data on a number of suppliers and business partners to the point that a &significant& chunk of applications can be processed without human involvement.

For example, if a loan application is seeking financing in order to do a dealing with Multinational X, First Circle can move quickly if it has dealt with the application before or it has issued loans to other partners who have done business withMultinational X.

&Over time, as we acquire more customers, the degrees of separation are collapsing over time,& Lynch said.

Philippines SME lending startup First Circle raises $26M ahead of regional expansion

First Circleexecutive team including co-founders Tony Ennis (third from left) and Patrick Lynch (middle)

The fact that there is little data available via a credit bureau makes things challenging.The need to built a solution from the ground up necessitates great time, cost and other resources but it can have major benefits, as First Circle is beginning to enjoy.

&Many new providers of financial services are rating customer for the first time. In 80 percent of the time in our case, itthe first time our customer will have had a formal relationship& with a financial organization, Lynch explained. &That provides an opportunity, if done correctly, to provide a strong relationship and be apart of their future success for a long time.&

Indeed, the First Circle CEO said that, to date, customers will typically take a loan of around $10,000, but the average will balance is $30,000 — meaning that there are three loans active. That reflects the transactional nature of the loans the startup is issuing, but of course more business means more data, stronger relationshipsanda higher chance of word-of-mouth recommendations.

First Circle is staying focused on the Philippines for now, but Lynch revealed that there are plans to expand to other parts of Southeast Asia, the region of nearly 650 million consumers. This round may help the company &put a foot in a second market,& Lynch said, but it is likely to go out and raise more money to push its regional expansion plan next year.

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Following approval from the city of Santa Monica, Uber is deploying bikes and its first set of scooters via JUMP, the bikeshare startup it acquired earlier this year.Although these are Xiaomi Ninebot scooters, Uber says itbranding them with JUMP for the sake of consistency when it comes to its personal electric vehicle services.

&JUMP is a leader in this space. People have grown to know, love and appreciate the quality of the product that JUMP offers and we&re building on that brand equity — investing further, and that was one of the major drivers,& Uber Scooter Product Manager Rhea Dookeran told TechCrunch.

As part of the pilot program, Uber can have up to 500 bikes and 250 scooters on the streets at any one time. Riders must also be sure to stay within the service area of Santa Monica, and not venture out into the broader Los Angeles area. Otherwise, they&ll be fined.

But Uber is not operating the only electric scooter service in Santa Monica. In mid September, Lyft launched electric scooters in Santa Monica just a couple of weeks after thecompany deployed them in Denver, Colo. In addition to Uber/JUMP and Lyft, both Bird and Lime operate electric scooters in Santa Monica.

Through October 7, UberJUMP scooters will be free. After that, the scooters cost $1 to unlock and then 15 cents per minute after the first five minutes. Before your first ride, you have to upload a photo of your driverlicense. At the end of each ride, you&ll have to take a photo of where you parked the scooter.Unlike other scooter startups, Uber will rely on its own employees to collect the scooters at night, charge them overnight and then re-deploy them in the morning.

Uber deploys JUMP scooters and bikes in Santa Monica

&Reliability and the quality of your service are the key to differentiation and users choosing you in this type of a market,& Dookeran said. &What that translates into is we want to touch every part of that process and make sure our standards and our service is up to par.&

Last month, Uber made it easier to switch between traditional rides, scooters and bikes — functionality that is making it possible forUber to deploy electric scooters today. That move came afterUber in July put some money behind its ambitions to get into scooters when it participated in a $335 million funding round in Lime.

Moving forward, Uber is looking to launch electric scooters in additional U.S. cities this year. Uber also expects to fully integrate Limeelectric scooters into its offering by the end of the year.

&We&ll of course need to display their inventory in our app once we&re ready to roll,& Dookeran said. &The full transaction will be possible through the Uber app.&

Over in San Francisco, we&re expecting to see electric scooters hit the streets again in a couple of weeks. Uber/JUMP, however, will not be one of them.

Skip and Scoot are the only companies awarded scooter permits in SF

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David Byttow, co-founder of Secret, the defunct anonymous social network that once gained notoriety for serving as the tech industryburn book, announced today that he will join Snap. The hire is noteworthy because before Secret shut down in 2015, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel tried to acqui-hire its team but decided the asking price was too high. Byttow told TechCrunch that he is joining Snap as its director of engineering.

Most recently, Byttow was engineering and product lead at on-demand delivery service Postmates, a position he&d held since May 2017 when it acqui-hired enterprise blogging service Bold, the last startup he launched. In a Medium post, Byttow wrote &Postmates recently announced a $300M funding round and is in a great position to continue its success in a massively lucrative market. And so, after 15 months at Postmates and 18 years on the west coast, I desired a new challenge. I joined Snapchat in NYC. I love the product, its vision, and the team behind it. I couldn&t be happier with the challenges and opportunities ahead.&

Launched in 2014, Secret was among several anonymous apps, including Whisper, Yik Yak, and ASKfm, that gained traction (and concerns about anonymous cyberbullying) at around the same time. Instead of teenagers, many of Secretearly adopters claimed to work in Silicon Valley and used the app to dish about their employers and co-workers (as TechCrunchRyan Lawler put it at the time, many posts related to &the dark underbelly of the startup ecosystem&). In April 2015, however, the app shut down despite having raised $35 million, and returned money to its investors.

It emerged with the publication of&How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars,& a book about Snapchatbeginnings written by former TechCrunch writer Billy Gallagher, that Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel had quietly tried to acqui-hire Secretteam before the app shut down. Spiegel wanted Byttow, Secret co-founder Chrys Bader-Wechseler and Secretproduct engineering team to become a &special ops& team at Snapchat, but the deal fell through because Spiegel and Secretinvestors couldn&t agree on a price.

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Notoriously secret on one hand, Apple has never been one to shy away from speaking its mind on matters of principle. During this current period of societal tumult, the $1 trillion company has more to answer for than ever.

In a new interview with VICE News Tonight on HBO, Apple chief executive Tim Cook talked about a slew of topics — including privacy, how the company keeps user data safe amid legal challenges and why it decided to ban notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its platforms.

Vice shared a copy of the transcript with TechCrunch. Herewhat he said:

On privacy, Cook calls for &some level& of regulation

Is the tech industry past the point of no return on matters of privacy

&I see privacy as one of the most important issues of the 21st century,& Cook told interviewer Elle Reeve. &We&re at a stage now, where more information is available about you, online and on your phone than there is in your house. You know, chances are your phone knows what you&ve been browsing, knows your friends, knows your relationships, has all of your photos.&

&I mean just think about this and the magnitude of information — we take that very seriously,& he said.

Applelong taken a unique approach to privacy. It doesn&t want your data — unlike advertising giants such as Facebook and Google, Apple doesn&t do anything with your data. But data hoarding companies have come under fire for misusing or exposing user data. Is it too late to reel in these companies and give the power back to the people, with help from Congress

&I&m not a pro-regulation kind of person,& he said. &I think some level of government regulation is important to come out of that.& Though, Cook wasn&t specific on what he wanted to see.

Cook didn&t outright name his rivals, but said that Apple takes a &collect as little as possible& approach to product design. Thatnot new — Apple has done this for years.

&We&re not forming the detailed profile, and then allowing other companies to buy the opportunity to target you,& he said. &Itnot the business that we&re in.&

Is Apple losing out on the competitive edge as a result — say, for Siri compared to Alexa &No,& said Cook. He said that the narrative that users have to give up their data to make their service better is &a bunch of bonk.&

For the most part, Apple processes user data on the device so the company never gets to see it.

Privacy is a &human right& — even in China

As a device maker, Apple is about as global as it can get — even in China, where device rivals like Google and other tech giants like Facebook have almost no footprint. But thatcause for conflict between Appleprivacy ideals and Chinapro-surveillance state.

Asked if privacy as a human right applies to its business in China, Cook said it &absolutely does.&

&Encryption for us is the same in every country in the world,& he said. We don&t design encryption for, you know, for the U.S. and do it differently everywhere else, itthe same. And so to send a message in China, itencrypted, I can&t produce the content. I can&t produce it in the United States either.&

Earlier this year, Apple moved its iCloud encryption keys for Chinese users to mainland China to comply with the countrynew vague, confusing and often conflicting cybersecurity rules. That sparked concern because it meant China can now ask AppleChina-based cloud partner to turn over data on Chinese customers — just like the FBI can force Apple to turn over data in the U.S. Apple had to play ball in order to keep doing business in the country — and China currently makes up close to 20 percent of Appleglobal annual revenue.

Cook defended the move, saying he &wouldn&t& accept that Chinese data stored in China makes it easier for Beijing to access that data.

&I mean we have servers located in many different countries in the world,& he said. &They are not easier to get data from being in one country versus the next. The key question is how does the encryption process work and who owns the keys, if anyone In most cases for us, you and the receiver own the keys.&

Decision to ban Alex Jones was made &independently&

Some say Alex Jones is the last bastion of free speech. Others call him a dangerous conspiracy theory-pusher who thinks the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

This year, Facebook banned him, then Twitter and then YouTube — and also tech giants like MailChimp, Spotify and PayPal. Apple remained silent. Jones& podcasts were still available on iTunes and his apps in the App Store. Until they weren&t.

&We don&t take a political stand,& said Cook. &We&re not leaning one way or the other.& Across Applevarious platforms, Cook said that users &see everything from very conservative to very liberal.& And, he said, &thatthe way I think it should be.&

Cook didn&t say there was a single moment that sparked the decision, but said that he has &never& had a conversation about Jones with any other tech company.

&Why not& said Reeve. &But why& Cook responded. &Because ita huge thing!& said Reeve. Cook said that itimportant that Apple makes decisions &independently.&

Tim Cook speaks out at FortuneCEO Initiative on hot-button issues like immigration

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