SaaS and Cloud Services

ClassPass, the seven-year-old fitness and wellness marketplace, announced last week that it has raised $285 million in Series E funding. The funding round was led by L Catterton and Apax Digital and included additional investment by current investor Temasek. ClassPass said in the announcement that it would use the new funding to expand its international presence and to focus on growing its corporate wellness sales program. According to TechCrunch, ClassPass has raised close to $550 million to date and is now valued at $1 billion, giving it the coveted status of unicorn.

If your teams are already out of the NCAA tournament, we've got you covered with some riveting subscription headlines: Crunchyroll raises its monthly subscription price for the first time since its 2006 launch, and Pinterest files for an IPO.The New York Times and Washington Post pass on becoming part of Apple News. Also this week, Zuora adds five new patents for subscription services, Google starts a subscription lab for local publishers to develop paid content, and the new LA Times owner sets a goal of 5 million digital subscribers

ast week, Digital Air Strike announced record 2019 results at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The technology company reported record subscription growth of 32% compared to 2018, its highest year ever. In addition to being a featured panelist at the Automotive News Shift event, Digital Air Strike was named one of Arizonas 20 biggest software companies alongside other tech companies like Axway, GoDaddy, Truyo and Cerner. The technology company offers a range of digital, social media response, consumer engagement and reputation management solutions, working with more than 5,000 car dealerships and other businesses in the U.S., Canada and abroad.

If you are tired of slow-loading websites and cookies tracking your every move online, Scroll now offers subscribers a different type of internet experience. For $4.99 a month, subscribers can access websites that load twice as fast and that have 80% fewer trackers. Subscribers can also browse and read completely ad-free on 300+ participating websites. Up to 70% of user subscription fees support partner websites, and Scroll keeps 30% to fund their operations.

Last week, Charles Schwab joined the subscription economy, offering investment advice digitally via subscription. The company previously offered this as a fee-based service called Schwab Intelligent Advisory, charging clients an advisory fee of 0.28 percent. The new subscription-based service is called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium, and it builds on the company's base 24/7 digital investment service called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. Rather than paying an advisory fee, investment clients will pay a one-time initial fee of $300 for planning and a $30 monthly subscription fee, billed quarterly. Using Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium requires a minimum investment of $25,000.

Happy New Year from Roku! On Wednesday, the streaming TV interface announced it would soon be expanding content on The Roku Channel to include more than 25 premium subscriptions such as SHOWTIME, Starz, College Humor's DROPOUT, CuriosityStream and EPIX. In addition to more than 10,000 free ad-supported movies and TV shows, Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) users will be able to find all their favorite programs in one spot, complete with personalized recommendations.

Facebook's recently-discovered data breach was more serious than originally anticipated. In late September, Facebook revealed hackers found a security loophole caused by three separate bugs that affected nearly 50 million Facebook accounts. At the time, Facebook did not reveal that any personal information had been stolen, but now the social platform is saying that 29 million people have had their personal information accessed.

With the Time Warner acquisition complete, AT&T is rolling out all sorts of new products and services. In addition to the upcoming launch of DC Universe, which we wrote about yesterday, AT&T has announced a new streaming service, WatchTV, available with its two newest unlimited data plans. At launch, WatchTV will offer 30+ live channels including AMC, CNN, Lifetime, TLC, TruTV, TBS and Boomerang, and it has plans to add more. Compatible with most smart phones and web browsers, WatchTV also offers a library of more than 15,000 TV shows and movies on-demand. At a later date, WatchTV will be available as a standalone subscription for $15 a month.

The technology now exists to offer fast broadband mobile data subscription service to every human on the planet. Elon Musk says hell make it happen before 2024, and if he doesnt, someone else will soon enough. Then what?

Last week, Consumer Reports announced that it received a $6 million donation from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to launch a Digital Lab focused on consumer rights. This donation is the largest in the history of Consumer Reports, a nonprofit advocacy membership organization. The Digital Lab will look at data privacy and security, fair market competition, transparency and consumer choice in the digital marketplace.The Lab may also help Consumer Reports put pressure on government agencies to respond more swiftly and seriously to consumer complaints about digital products and services.