Technology

Kano has been an undeniable success story. The company, which began life as a Kickstarter project, had shipped north of 200,000 of its Raspberry Pi coding kits by the end of last year. 2017 also saw the company raise a $28 millionround and get backing from Sesame StreetSesame Ventures.

Today, the company is announcing another key licensing deal that brings one of kids& litmost beloved characters to the hardware ecosystem. And unlike the Sesame Street announcement, this one is launching with a hardware product in tow. The Harry Potter Kano Coding Kit is more than just a branded version of the standard kit, however.

The system is built around a &build it yourself& wand that utilizes an on-board gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to interact with coding content on-screen. That are 70-plus &wizard challenges& that utilize various pieces of Harry Potter IP. The young coders create different lines that associate actions with wand movements. So, lift the wand and owls appear. Twist it and a bell rings. You get the basic drift.

The kit is the first piece of Harry Potter merchandise aimed at helping kids learn STEM. Itcompatible with iOS and Android tablets and Windows and Mac computers. Itup for pre-order and will hit retail October 1, priced at $100. Thatabout half the price of the full Kano Computer Kit.

ScaleFactor, the Techstars alumnus thatselling accounting and payroll management software as a service, has raised $10 million in a new round of funding as it looks to scale up its sales and marketing efforts.

Founded by longtime accountant, Kurt Rathmann, the Austin-based company has created a software service that collects and analyzes data from point of sale systems, bank accounts, credit cards and billing systems, to automate recordkeeping and payroll functions.

Rathmann, a former KPMG employee, started ScaleFactor after seeing the lack of innovation in the backoffice functions that are really the engine of any small business.

&Around the tech stack, accounting and financials were lacking the most,& Rathmann says. So he left his job at KPMG and started ScaleFactor Consulting out of his garage in Austin in 2014.

After a few years of basically going door-to-door (a throwback to Rathmannfirst company as an 18-year-old selling outdoor lighting in suburban Dallas) to find out what small businesses needed from an accounting software solution, ScaleFactor developed the API toolkit and management software that would become the services itpitching today.

After graduating from TechStars& Austin accelerator, the company was able to nab $2.5 million in a seed financing round that included TechStars Ventures, NextCoast Ventures, and two Kansas City-based investment firms — Firebrand Ventures and Flyover Capital.

While the initial services business holds a lot of value and has managed to attract scores of small businesses, both Rathmann and his new investors led by Canaan Partners and including Citi Ventures and Broadhaven Capital see bigger opportunities down the road for ScaleFactor.

With the window that the company has into the operations of small businesses around the country, ScaleFactor can serve as an unimpeachable source of information for small business lenders.

With insight of (and control over) payroll management, billpay, cash approvals, cash accounting, and an ability to project forward cash flows (along with invoicing and tax management for part time employees), ScaleFactor will be able to offer lending services to smooth bumps in a companyprogress.

&Bookkeeping and accounting is really the nucleus,& says Michael Gilroy, a principal with Canaan Partners.

While Square has moved into lending services (and now is on the hunt for a banking license) through its window into a companyrevenues through point-of-sale devices, a company like ScaleFactor has a more holistic view of the health of a business, says Gilroy.

Equipped with that information ScaleFactor software can do things — like prompt business owners of the revenue targets they need to hit each month or suggest lending options to cover shortfalls — that better equip business owners to handle disruptions.

&With our foundation established, a big part of our Series A is how do we power the business owner past bookkeeping - accounting We see many opportunities to help further andour next steps willinclude things like lending, payments andmany other activities that take a business owner/operators focus away from driving their business forward,& Rathmann wrote in an email.

League founder and CEO Michael Serbinis

League, an online platform that wants to reduce the strain of managing health benefits for companies and employees alike, announced today that it has raised a $62 million CAD (about $47.1 million USD) Series B. The round was led by TELUS Ventures, with participation from Wittington Ventures and returning investors OMERS, Infinite Potential Group, RBC Ventures and BDC Ventures.

The Toronto-based startuplast round of funding was a $25 million Series A two years ago. With clients like Uber, Shopify and Unilever, League is currently one of the bigger players in the &employee wellness space,& which encompasses a roster of startups dedicated to boosting retention and productivity rates by improving health benefits. The growth of the sector is fueled by competition for top talent, the rising cost of healthcare and increasing awareness of mental health issues.

League was launched in 2014 by serial entrepreneur Michael Serbinis, who was previously founder and CEO of Kobo, the Kindle competitor acquired by Rakuten in 2011. Serbinis tells TechCrunch that his interest in health technology was sparked by a conversation about healthcare inefficiencies with Patrick Soon-Shiong, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur and NantHealth founder probably better known outside of biotech circles as the newest owner of the Los Angeles Times. Serbinis says Soon-Shiong told him that the healthcare system needed to be fixed by someone outside of the industry, who was able to take a fresh, consumer-driven approach.

&I got into it naively not being a healthcare person, with not even a biology class anywhere in my past, and I very quickly realized that most people think about healthcare through the lens of health insurance, i.e. can I do it, can I afford it& Serbinis, LeagueCEO,says. &The more I learned about it, the more I realized how broken it is. In the U.S. and Canada and Western European nations, healthcare gets more expensive, but you get less and less, and no one loves the experience.&

He notes that health benefits &are a top three requirement for anyone seeking a new job in the U.S. today and for millennials itthe top one or two, depending on the survey.& At the same time, healthcare is also one of the top three expenses for companies.

While there is a growing roster of startups,including Spring Health, Lyra Health and Lumity, tackling different corporate healthcare issues, Serbinis felt the space was still missing &an end-to-end platform that fits on top of health insurance providers and underwriters, to give employers a way to offer a competitive solution in the war for talent and saving money.&

Leaguemission is to let employees take more control over their health plans, while reducing costs for companies by providing a HIPAA-compliant platform that connects all benefits. This enables employees to manage their health plan and benefits with Leaguechat-based online assistant and a digital wallet. They also gain more transparency into things like health insurance pricing and flexible spending accounts. League partners with other companies to offer perks like ClassPass or Headspace discounts, prescription delivery services or access fertility treatments that aren&t covered by traditional insurance plans.

On the other end, companies get analytics to help them design healthcare plans and see if the benefits they offer are actually improving employee morale.

Serbinis says Leagueease of use is proven by its high engagement rate. The company claims three-quarters of users log onto the platform each month, and of that number, many access it five to 20 times a month.

One interesting aspect of Leaguestory is that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan are currently making headlines for a new joint health care initiative. While the venture will start by overhauling health benefits at those three organizations, it is being closely watched because of its potential influence on the health care industry. Thanks to Kobo, which was once Kindletop competitor, Serbinis already has experience going head-to-head with Amazon.

After learning about the triumvirateplans, Serbinis says he emailed Bezos. &I said I love the initiative and would love to help out, because for the most part, what people expect in the short-term is really aggregate purchasing power and driving costs down there. But ultimately, I expect a lot more from them, and the idea of bringing strategic assets and capability, a big pool of employees and technology together is the right strategy,& he says. &I can see Amazon looking for a partner like League.&

He adds that the joint initiative will light a fire in the sector. &I see new entrants into this market accelerate because of Amazon. It really has opened peopleeyes to the idea that this is a massive problem,& Serbinis says. &I see a lot of people getting into the game because of Amazon leading the way, and what I&ve seen already is incumbent players trying to speed up and accelerate their innovation programs.&

In a media statement, TELUS Ventures managing partner Rich Osborn said &We believe that innovative companies like League&which deliver compelling, consumer-centric experiences&will not only drive high employee and employer engagement, but will also deliver fundamental improvements in health outcomes for Canadians through their carrier-friendly open platform.&

The companySeries B will be used to open offices in San Francisco, New York and London. League launched in the United States in 2017, starting with an office in Chicago, and is now licensed to operate in all 50 states. Serbinis says one of the markets that will help its American expansion are employers with less than 50 &full-time equivalent& employees who aren&t mandated to provide coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but still need to offer health benefits in order to attract talent. Another new opening is the recent Department of Labor ruling on &association health plans& that makes it easier for small businesses in the same sector to team up and buy employee health insurance together.

League also plans to begin operating in the United Kingdom and European Union next year, which will make it easier to attract multinational clients who want to use the same platform to manage health benefits in different countries.

&When you think about the future of health insurance, iteasy to think about more of the same, but with a better website or app,& says Serbinis. &But the fact is that the future of health insurance is not just about insurance, but health and there is the idea of focusing on consumers and delivering personalized experiences, a digital experience that is data driven and helps them every day, instead of waiting to the point where they are sick and have to go to a website under duress to find out what to do.&