Personalized Financial Planning Service LearnVest Raises $16.5M From Accel, American Express And Others

LearnVest, a personalized financial planning program, has raised $16.5 million in strategic funding from existing investor Accel Partners, and new investors: American Express Ventures; Claritas Capital; Ed Mathias, founding member of The Carlyle Group; and Todd Ruppert, Former CEO & President of T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services. This brings the startup's total funding to $41 million.

Founded by Alexa von Tobel, LearnVest originally debuted back in 2009 at TechCrunch50 as an online guide aimed at teaching women to become more financially savvy. As we wrote a few years back, the startup was Suze Orman blended with personal finance site Mint.com. Last year, LearnVest pivoted slightly to aim for both men and women, and became a full-fledged investment advisor.

As von Tobel explains, LearnVest is now more like Weight Watchers for your finances. The company offers the LearnVest Action Program, which is a seven, step by step program that takes you from cutting expenses to budgeting for goals to investing your money. All users get a certified financial planner who gives them specialized attention based on their financial needs and goals. Von Tobel adds that each of these advisors has gone through training and is empathetic to all financial situations. Financial plans starting at $89 for the budget version. The five-year plan is $299 and the portfolio builder is $399.

From the sounds of it, it looks like LearnVest may get a huge marketing boost from AmEx to push its financial planning product. "We believe strongly in the mission of LearnVest Planning to provide accessible financial advice," said Harshul Sanghi, Managing Partner, American Express Ventures, in a release. "As we seek to expand our portfolio of products across American Express, we believe LearnVest Planning can be an important partner in helping us to bring customers more convenient, affordable and transparent ways to manage their money."

With headquarters in New York City, the company has now opened a west coast office in Phoenix, Ariz., to serve as a hiring and training hub for the company's team of financial planners. In addition to the investment, LearnVest Planning is debuting Workplace Solutions, a financial wellness platform that companies can offer as an employee benefit.

Mathias and Ruppert are advisors, as is Susan Lyne, AOL's Brand Group CEO and Vice Chairman of Gilt Groupe (and our boss's boss's boss); and Ann Sardini, former CFO of Weight Watchers.

There are plenty of startups that want to disrupt wealth management, including Wealthfront, Betterment and of course, Mint. But von Tobel says that LearnVest Planning is really focused on a broader demographic because the program triages individuals for financial health and then gives them an action plan. She believes that LearnVest is the most hands-on financial planning program you'll find.

Google's Instant Translators Could Become The Universal Tongue

Google likes to create things that gather data, which can be used to determine intent and for all kinds of profitable purposes. There's no bigger fish in that pond than the Babel fish - that invention of Douglas Adams' in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series that instantly translates one language to another to make communication seamless. That's because Google would be processing literally everything a person says to another (at least while travelling), which adds up to a lot of mineable data.

Google is working on exactly that kind of invention, according to a report from The Times today. Hugo Barra, Google's VP of Android Product Management, told The Times that Google plans to make real-time translation devices that will translate language for simple conversation across language barriers. Already the system is "near-perfect" between some languages, Barra says, especially in environments where there is no background noise to confuse the input detection.

Google already offers Google Translate, which offers text translation, as well as entire webpage translation on the web. The goal now is to make instant back-and-forth conversation translation a practical, usable reality that can make it possible for someone to accomplish everything they need to in an unfamiliar language without learning a lick of it. As with most sci-fi staples, however, Google says this is likely still several years away from becoming a shipping product.

For Google, whose efforts include Google Now, the personal assistant and automated digital planner that aspires to anticipate your every need, building an instant human translation engine is not a surprising move. What's surprising is that it works "perfectly" in certain conditions right now, and that we could all be walking around talking into one in just a few years time, which means it'll be here before we know it. Time is an illusion, after all; lunchtime doubly so.

Google Kills Google+ Local For iOS, App Now Pulled From iTunes App Store

According to a report circulating the web, Google is officially retiring its Google+ Local application for iOS as of August 7. However, as far as we can tell, the app has already been removed from Apple's iTunes App Store, and links pointing to the app, when clicked, provide the message that "the item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."

The report being cited by a number of publications is based on 9to5Mac's blog post, which refers to an email sent in by a tipster. We've also obtained a copy of the email, as well, forwarded to us by Mark Traphagen who had posted about the app's closure on Google+. (See full email below).

In the email, Google explains that the Google+ Local app on iOS will be retired on August 7, as the updated version of the Google Maps app can now offer a number of the functions the Local app once provided, including the ability to search by categories of places, read place information, reviews, pricing, and addresses, plus the ability to rate, review and share the places you've been to and discover.

In addition, the email says that after August 7, users would no longer be able to access the Google+ Local app on their iOS device, but any reviews and ratings created would be available on both their Google+ profile and within the Google Maps app for iOS.

However, the actual link to the app from a Google Search result or other webpage is currently broken. In addition, a search inside the iOS App Store for all Google apps shows that the app is no longer available there. (Though we did spot what appears to be a beta test of something called Google Coordinate. Oops, that's an enterprise product. We knew that.)

9to5Mac's blog post uses an App Store affiliate link to point to the Google+ Local app, and this is now redirecting users who click to the Google Maps iOS application instead.

We've reached out to Google to confirm the situation, but it seems pretty apparent, as is. Google+ Local for iOS is no more, even though it's not yet August 7. (Update: Google confirms the app is being retired.)

Though much of the functionality has now made it over to Google Maps, the Local app was useful for its singular focus, which made it an easy-access tool for local listings. Maps is a more robust, feature-rich application, which doesn't always work best when you're in need of speed. But the Local app hadn't been getting much attention in recent weeks, leading to several negative App Store reviews where users complained. One even said the project "has been put on the back burner" and Google should "just get rid of it."

And so it seems Google did.

Under the Larry Page era at Google, the company has been busy streamlining its product lineup and areas of development, with a heavy emphasis on its social platform, Google+. Already, Google+ had absorbed Local on the web, but the Google+ iOS app doesn't yet contain "Local" as an option in the sidebar, which is why the email likely pointed users to the Google Maps flagship application instead of both it and the Google+ app.

Not only was Google+ Local a duplicate of functionality that is better served elsewhere, the app itself was struggling to gain adoption. The app had less than a 1 percent reach across U.S. iPhone users, reports Onavo Insights. In June, less than 0.75 percent of U.S. iPhone users opened the app at least once, compared with nearly 35 percent who opened Google Maps.

Below, the full email below Google sent Google+ Local users:

Apply Now For The San Diego Meetup + Pitch-Off

The time has come. TechCrunch is coming to San Diego for a night of pitches, drinks and general tomfoolery. And we're looking for the area's best undiscovered startups to pitch their revolutionary ideas on our stage. Apply within.

On August 22, TechCrunch is taking over Block 16. Josh Constine, Jordan Crook, Greg Kumparak, and myself are stoked to see San Diego's best up and coming startups. We're only in town for a few days, so we're looking to make this night huge.

General admission tickets are $5 and including drinks. 21 and over only, please.

But this is more than just a meet and drink affair. This is a pitch-off. And as the attendees of our Austin and Seattle's pitch-offs will likely attest, this is an event you're not going to want to miss.

We're looking for the area's best and brightest young startups to pitch their company or idea to a few TechCrunch editors and local VCs. It's free to register, and the 30 companies selected will get free admission to the event, as well as some one-on-one time with TC editors earlier in the day.

Best yet, the winners of the pitch-off get a Disrupt SF Startup Alley package that puts them in front of the masses of Silicon Valley's elite. The runners-up get two tickets to Disrupt SF.

Apply here or in the form below. We're reviewing applications on a rolling basis so it's best to apply early. Registration closes on August 16.

San Diego is our latest stop in TechCrunch's nationwide Meetup + Pitch-Off tour. We were just in Seattle last week and found a bevy of amazing startups nestled in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. In May, we visited Austin, Texas, and before that, we held the first Pitch-Off of 2013 in front of 1,200 people in New York. We'll be visiting Boston in November.

Our sponsors help make events happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team at sponsors@techcrunch.com.

12 Innocent Topics That Britain's New Hyper-Censored Internet Will Probably Block

British Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed the democratized world's most aggressive anti-porn laws. Unfortunately, in order to restrict access to something as ubiquitous as porn, he'll likely have to block most of the Internet.

To protect "children and their innocence," Cameron has proposed new regulations that will filter online porn by default and completely exclude blacklisted terms from search engines. While details are still scant, all new Wi-Fi routers will automatically filter porn, and millions of existing Internet users will have to opt-in through some type of online consent form to access adult material.

Various Internet and child-protection groups have argued that the ban will not disrupt the secret file-sharing networks of pedophiles, or the cultural factors that enable the worst forms of illicit pornography. But the most glaring issue is just how broad censors must be to completely block out something as ubiquitous as porn.

As a happy accident, my Mac broke this week, and I only have access to a stripped-down Safari Internet browser in Apple's recovery mode. By default, Apple's strictest parental controls were enabled, and I've found myself blocked off from most of the Internet. Here are a few things I can't search for on Bing.

BLOCKED: "Child Pornography Prevention Programs"
BLOCKED: "Rick Santorum"
BLOCKED: "Weiner Sex Scandal"
BLOCKED: "TechCrunch.com"
BLOCKED: "Dick Costolo" (CEO of Twitter)
BLOCKED: "Jefferson sex with slaves"
BLOCKED: "Tumblr's porn problem"
BLOCKED: "Sexual reconstructive surgery"
BLOCKED: "How to tell my boyfriend I don't want to have sex"
BLOCKED: "How to put on a condom"
BLOCKED: "Pussy Riot"
BLOCKED: "Adult Film Industry and expansion of broadband"

Yep, that's right, Apple blocks this website probably because we occasionally use curse words and have written about sexual issues. It also blocks out Russia's fiery dissidents, Pussy Riot, scrubs America's unsavory history, and would effectively block anyone from learning about the CEO of Twitter or a handful of candidates for higher office.

Cameron seems aware of the problem and has hinted at a solution that prompts users for safer alternatives. A query like "child sex" would prompt a pop-up like "Did you mean child sex education?"

The problem with this approach is that the world isn't PG-13. Politics, business, and personal health regularly intersect with adult issues. The (very) savvy engineers at Apple have already discovered that you have to apply a tourniquet to the First Amendment to effectively block children from seeing naughty pictures.

In fact, I couldn't even search for the story about Cameron wanting to block porn. I only accessed it because it was on the front page of Google News. Under Cameron's Internet, I'll have great difficulty reading about his own policies after it fades from the front pages.

Even if citizens feel comfortable opting in to a porn-friendly Internet in their own homes, they'd still be blocked from airport Wi-Fi, city Wi-Fi and public libraries.

I'm sympathetic to Cameron's concerns. Porn is not society's proudest creation. But this has to be the dumbest Internet policy I've ever heard of. And I read about this stuff for a living.

PetziConnect Is A Wireless Camera & Treat Disher For Dog Owners To Remotely Pet Fido

Connected gizmos for dogs are having a moment, thanks to the likes of FitBark and other canine activity trackers. But here's a connected gadget designed for dog owners to interact with their pet, rather than keep tabs on its health. Indeed, overuse of the PetziConnect's treat dispenser feature may require some kind of health monitoring tech so push the treat button with caution.

Fortunately PetizConnect has other functions, that do not rely on treats to make pet and pet owner happy. Specifically it includes a wireless HD camera and a microphone so that pet owners can remotely summon Fido from his afternoon snooze and then watch as he cocks his head quizzically, wondering why his master's voice is coming out of a box plugged in the wall.

As well as letting pet owners remotely view and coo at their dogs, and reward interest in a disembodied voice with the occasional tangible treat - dispensed via a button in the Android or iOS app or via a web client - the PetziConnect lets them take photos and record video. Which does, incidentally, beg the question how secure are Petzila's systems - since once the device is up and running you will have a wireless, Internet-connected eye peeking into your home. Still, it's designed to be plugged in at dog height so its view of any larger home occupants is probably going to be pretty partial. (Uhh, unless they happen to be rolling around on the floor nearby...)

Petzila was seeking $30,000 via Indiegogo to get the first batch of its connected dog-treating gizmo manufactured but has already passed that goal, with 40 days still left to run on its crowdfunding campaign. PetziConnects - which it says are rugged enough to deal with being mauled by a frenzied Fido hoping to get more treats/liberate its owner from inside the box - are due to ship to backers in December. The current lowest price-tag for crowdbackers wanting to bag a device is $99.

Update: Here's what a Petzila spokesman had to say on the security point: "PetziConnect is built upon a 128-/256-bit encrypted, proprietary transport layer that blanket secures our three Petzila modules - Portal (mobile or web), Cloud, PetziConnect. In layman's terms, we built the system bottoms-up to be end-to-end bullet proof secure."

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Will Take The Stage At Disrupt SF

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo wears many hats. Not only is he helping lead Twitter into its possible future as a public company, Costolo is a master at improv from his days as a professional comedian, and is a serial entrepreneurs who has sold companies to Google (Feedburner) and others. Which is why we are thrilled to announce that Costolo will join us for a discussion at Disrupt SF.

As Twitter heads down a path towards an eventual IPO, Costolo has been steering the company towards profitability via new ad products, with Twitter potentially hitting $1 billion in ad revenue in the coming year. Beyond supercharging the financials, Costolo has a unique approach to managing his fleet of over one thousand employees, and creating a distinct culture at a company that has been growing by leaps and bounds.

We're excited to have Costolo take the stage along with other notable CEOs like Marc Benioff, Marissa Mayer, and Jeff Weiner. Much has changed for both Costolo and Twitter since hespoke at TC50 in 2009.

Disrupt SF takes over The San Francisco Design Concourse from September 7 to 11. Tickets are currently on sale here. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, opportunities can be found here.

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Dick Costolo
Twitter, CEO

Since October 2010, Dick has been the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, where he is responsible for the growth and management of the overall business. Previously, as Twitter's Chief Operating Officer, he oversaw monetization and day to day operations.

Before joining Twitter, Dick was co-founder and CEO of FeedBurner, a digital content syndication platform that was acquired by Google in 2007. While at Google, Dick was Group Product Manager on the Ads team responsible for social media ads.

Previously, Dick lived and worked in Chicago, where he founded and ran two digital media companies: SpyOnIt, a web page monitoring service, and Burning Door Networked Media, a web design and development consulting company. Dick was also an improv performer with the acclaimed Annoyance Theater.

He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Computer Science. He is @dickc on Twitter.

[image Scott Beale / Laughing Squid]