Ukraine's Technology Sector Going Strong

is affecting its world renowned tech sector. We're gonna talk to two engineers who've been helping their employees stationed across Ukraine about how it's going down and more than a billion dollars in losses for graph this last quarter. I'll speak with President ming Mo about how he plans to

turn it around. Despite the relentless onslaught of Russian forces, Ukraine's vital tech sector is still operating for clients around the world, while Ukraine's own tech leaders are helping support the war effort in working around the clock to keep

their own employees safe. I want to bring in two of those tech leaders now, Lasha onto DAWs, the co founder of the n f T a PI platform, Rarefy, as well as Pavel Crecenko, founder of the blockchain Blockchain Expertise Center Distributed Lab, who just helped some of his team members get out of the city in Carkeev Pavela, I know you are in western Ukraine right now, so you're holding up your phone in front of your face where you are hunkered down. I would love for you

to talk to us about what you're experiencing there. I know you're in a city called Uzgrut, which has been quieter till now. How are you doing and what is the situation there? Yeah, the situation is he's okay, but you know, seven days ago a volk from the rockets and explosions and Kiev, so that that was like an experience and still like big part of my team is experiencing this in Hearkiv. The ARKive was all over the

news because Russians have demolishing the city. So today, yesterday, tomorrow we're like avacating the team and also people who are like in big need. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about what you're experiencing. Obviously, my heart goes out to you and your team. Lasha. I know you left Ukraine for safety in Georgia. A few weeks ago, but you still have almost two dozen employees and developers still in the Ukraine. What are they

telling you right now? So definitely as you can stay on trying to manage from outside of country, and it's

the kind of a challenge as well. But I want to like actually stank the community internally and power when he steam because there's a huge coordination among the the developer community and in terms of like even evacuating and living and coordinating UH this process and overall what we've seen inside UH is a huge help because the chats that were used previously for inviting the greatest speakers in Ukraine and really showing what we're building are now kind

of coordination chets in terms of like who needs would and UH that's a huge help, especially for me who's outside and trying to manage all that and get hand on hand. Pavel, I know you're working around the clock to help your employees get to safer places. How hard is it to get out talk to us about the logistical challenges that you're dealing with. I know they are first of all leaving everything they know it is incredibly costly. They won't have access necessarily to a consistent supply of

food or or medication. Basically, there are a few challenges. You have this shortage of like taxi drivers, so anybody who can deliver anything. And the prices went up like fifty times, so for normal people it's just impossible to pay. Uh for I T people is still possible, but it's a very expensive operation. Uh. And plus the martial laws, like you you cannot stay outside after six or in some cities after four and yeah, you logistics need to

be finished before so the day starts at six am. Um. Yeah in some places, like one developer just called me said, I need yeah way out because our home has no electricity, has no heat, has no gas because it was bumped and yeah, so he needs to escape tomorrow. So this type of stuff we have right now, like Hearkeep is under like heavy heavy fire. There are some other cities that are even worse, um, like Popo and her Son.

But yeah, Hearkeef is a very big city. It's like one and a half million, and approximately like fifty developers were there. So the business is obviously disrupted. But our clients supporting us, they're sending us money to donate because we donated to people who are in need to whom like such a doors is like fortune currently to buy like bread, but yeah, not everything you can buy with money. That's that's the truth that comes when you are in ward.

The money doesn't save you. Lasha, I, I know that you are working to support your developers on on the ground and there has been an incredible means of internal communication in the way that you've all come together. How are you organizing? You know? How how often is this a minute by minutes, second by second thing you like the first thing that comes like every morning you wake

up and try to figure out what happens. So this is the the most kind of uh strange moment when you wake up and you don't know what happened over the hours that you were asleep and trying to like individually and into the group group chats find out who's how who the bombs that were seeing like how close they were to the places they spend the night, and this coordination is like I don't know, a couple of times over the day and especially when somebody leaves and

tomorrow like some of the developers are going to live it. It's a kind of challenge. So is it going to happen. What time will they be able to get to the other cities. So there's a lot of risks and uncertainty, and I'm trying to keep the momentum of controlling and understanding who's at what stage. But well, I understand some of your employees have expressed wine to fight for your country.

Are they taking up arms? Are you being asked to fight? Actually, there are lots of people who want to fight, and if you don't have an experience, they will not let you. So like, yeah, many companies were kind of afraid that they are people will be drawn to army, but actually, yeah, that's very little amount of unexperienced people will go there. But yes, they kind of it's a very pathotic like spirit here because it's a whole lands and they just

bomb that. And surprisingly, like Hearkieve was always considered like you know, they will speak Russian um, and it was kind of friendly city and now they kind of rush demolishes it like more than other cities. And that's kind of made people like wonder like that what they supported in the past was really a kind not good. So yeah, that's the four. More and more people are willing to h to go to the army, and I know many people who come from abroad to fight, like Ukrainians that

came from abroad. So that's the situation basically, and everybody's helping. Like I have Facebook. Your wife, I understand is there with you and and isn't leaving the country, but she's making supplies for the army. Can you tell us about that decision deciding to stay rather than leave when leaving could be safer, Like we all in the same boat.

So like if you leave you home once, then you leave your home twice then the third time, so that that will never end, you know, like the apartments that were bombed day before yesterday, I was living in the same area in two a part and one of them I sold to the guy who moved from the nisk and then was already yeah, heavily destroyed when the separatists came there. And now like carkieve, so like that's the faith. If you move another time, then they'll come and take

something from there. Like surprisingly, we have a Georgian like Lasha year and Georgia experienced this twice with Abasia and Salicitia, so like, yeah, it will never stop if you don't fight. Um, the Ukrainian government has been so crypto forward accepting crypto donations. And I know that you have experienced in blockchain and and n f T technology, Lasha, you know some of the way that the Ukrainian government has been able to accept these donations to come up with this idea to

auction off digital assets has been pretty incredible. What is it about Ukraine and the deep bunch of tech talent they're like yourself that's enabled the country to do this definitely, So Ukraine is is one of the greatest countries and people who are like tech savy, especially into so called webtry and block chain space and especially power his team and like in time network crypto community as we call each other, that has been like super strong, like both

like in building pro pro products for like on the global level and really outsourcing. It has been the massive force of outsource for the Western companies to build out this new web. But unlike I can probably say that the same community is like building and fighting and the same time and we're going to continue doing until we win.

And the crypto has like become like a widely used think even before the world and now it's helping a lot to fund the fund the campaigns and fund the people who are in need for that, and the government like really enabling the crypto the nations and the community assisting that sopre than thirty million as I know by the last statistics have been mobilized over that, and that shows like how big the crypto community and support from

the outside is of that particular space in the industry. Well, it has been incredibly powerful to hear your story, to hear how you are fighting to keep your employees safe and continuing to work and run your companies. Thank you for taking the time to share your stories with us, Lasha Anta's and Pavel Cochenko. We hope that you stay safe. All right, coming up, we're gonna have to Singapore. I'm

gonna speak with the president of Grab meg Mob. The company continues to push towards profitability as the pandemic drags on. That is next. This is Bloomberg. The effects of the pandemic still being felt. Grab Southeast Asia's ride hailing and delivery giant, reporting mounting losses in its latest earnings results, losing more than a billion dollars for the quarter. Joining now ming Ma, President of Grab Ming, you are of course based in Singapore, which just announced rare unilateral sanctions

on Russia. What do you think of Singapore's response so far and how the world community is really rallying against Russia. Hey, Emilie, first of all, thank you for very much for having me on here. UM. It goes without saying that our hearts UM just absolutely go out to everyone that's been affected. UM. We do have a few grab her that's also been affected in the region that we're doing a week that we can UM. I would say, you're actlutely right. The

COVID impact has been severe. UM. We're seeing potential impacts of a global basis, and frankly we're despite that. I think we feel very happy with a lot of performance that we've achieved. UM. In spite of all the city lockdowns and spite of all the macro turmoil, was our best year ever. We exceeded guidance on g MB revenues group by and we delivered against our Ibada guidance. UM. In terms of Southeast Asia, it's clear that our super apt strategy is working. UM. Our users are spending more.

Customers from our cohort are now spending close to five times what they spent when they first joined grap and our retention rates are now up to sevent for customers that use three or more services from graph. We are generating solid margins and mobility, and we are focused on building value over the long term UM and just really unlocking the tremendous market opportunity that we see here. And we are convicted that the position that we've taken in our rategy as the only regional super app is the

right one for us. How are you thinking about delivery and ridehaling workers in Southeast Asia at this time? Many of them are part time workers, they have little rights. How are you factoring that into the future of the company. Well, the key for us has always been around how do we create true economic empowerment for micro entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia?

And these micro entrepreneurs certainly include our driver partners, includes many of the restaurant partners that we work with in food delivery, and the key for us is how do we provide the largest income opportunities for drivers for merchants over time? And the key aspect for that is executing

on our super ap strategy. It's about cross sell um selling multiple services to our consumers and over time, generating increased wallets share for consumers, and I think that's the best way for us to continue empowering um economic stability for the region. W Now, the war in Ukraine is only escalating, as we've been discussing, there's concern it could lead to rising food prices. It will certainly makes supply chain issues potentially worse. How is GRAB potentially impacted by

that and preparing for that. Yeah, well, we're obviously monitoring the situation pretty closely. It's a little bit too early to see that to really tell how the effects will rippull through Southeast Asia. We're monitoring gas prices, oil prices as it relates to our drivers. That certainly hits the driver p mls in a very direct way. We're also monitoring food costs and the effects of inflation across Southeast Asia.

But if I just step back for a second, the real key for us as a platform is how do we provide the lowest cost services to our merchants, our drivers and to our consumers. And ultimately, if we're able to do that, then I think the sustainability will be on the platform. I just want to give a quick example. When you look at our total segment of just Abada margins.

We've improved those by from from a minus two percent loss in one and I think a large part of that is by driving continued cost reductions and the platform which ultimately we then share with all of our partners restaurants and drivers. All right, MGMA, President of GRAB, thank you for joining us. We'll see how GRAB continues to weather the COVID storm. Welcome back to bloomber Technology. I

Emily Changing in San Francisco. It's estimated that more than a million refugees has left Ukraine as the war has now stretched into its second week, and it's a brutal one, many fleeing to Poland, leaving behind a cloud of uncertainty on when they can return and what they will be returning. To bloom book Zaggi Control is in Poland and spoke

to those leaving it all behind. I saw a lot of damages, a lot of crashes, and I even just I don't see my Kiev as it was earlier at the main train station in Chemichel, a border town with Ukraine. Poland is experiencing an influx of refugees from the war just over the other side of their border. We're seeing people who have come from Kiev and volv and other parts of the country arrive in Poland in the EU, and this is something that is happening in a lot

of places around the European Union's borders with Ukraine. It was very, very frightened. We're just here with my son and my husband's stayed in Ukraine and trying to fight. I hope that here he will alive, and I hope that he will come here. I leave in Ukraine, my husband and I come to Poland with my daughter and with my friends. We are going to Germany today and I don't know how many time we stay there. We have also heard about people who are not Ukrainian citizens,

but we're living in the country. At the time that the war began, discussing the fact that they found it harder to leave the country because they weren't Ukrainian. It was very very challenged because I was not Ukrainian, and so even the guys they were pushing us, and they were trying to stop us from mentoring the train and allowing the Ukrainians to go first. Although I'm from Africa, but I have a wife who is from Ukraine. First,

when you arrived at the border of Ukraine. They took my wife and my child away and they told me to wait, so I stood for I stood there for about threday more or four hours before the quarter as become. He was really really stressful. It took me two days to get to Poland. Like leaving Ukraine is was very, very like stressful. And I didn't want to leave Ukraine now because all my life is there, my child, everything

is like we left everything in Ukraine. So I don't know from now, because if they were still continuous in Ukraine, I don't know what will happen. And now they're telling us you can only stay fourteen days here, and I don't know what to do. The U n A c R has said that any sort of discrimination against people from third countries would not be acceptable under the Geneva Convention, but that they haven't had confirmation of such things from

the authorities. Here. We're seeing people who get hot food and SIM cards in order to try and stay in contact with their families back home, and also to try and see what their next steps are, whether they're going to remain in Poland or try and find a new life in some other parts of the European Union, whether that be just for now or potentially more permanently. I hope that we will return soon because I didn't want to leave. I want I want to be home, but

unfortunately such institution. We are hoping that it will end soon. At this moment, I don't see the opportunity to return. Bloomberg Zaggy Control they're in Poland. Now. I want to bring in Ali Partoby, the CEO of NA, which just launched a new accelerator. I want to get to that in a moment. Um, Ali with me here in the studio. I want to start actually by asking a little bit about your family history, because you grew up during a war in Iran, and I'm so curious. What is it

like watching these images and seeing Ukraine under attack. Yeah, Emily, and thank you for having me here. Um, it's really tough. War. War is really terrible, and for me it's personal because I was seven years old, um, when living in Iran when Iraq invaded us and for the next five years. You know, Um, there was just this ever present sense

of fear and as a as a child, it's really difficult. Um. You know that, not just the fear, but the seeing you're seeing the grown ups be afraid, seeing your parents be stressed out or anxious. Uh, and not knowing what's going to happen next is particularly difficult for children. And um, I will say that on the on the bright side, my twin brother and I were very lucky because we had a special form of escape. As you know I've

told you in the past. Um, we were amongst the only kids in the country to have a computer, and we learned how to program, and that for us was a way to have a way to create our own world, you know, in software that you know, that we could control and that followed the rules, and that was predictable, and it's that was an enormous comfort for us. Um, you know, to have that, and I would say it helped us get to and and you both founded a company called code dot org, which I believe you can

access anywhere. I mean, do you have any advice for parents and children who are there right now trying to figure out how to pass the days and survive? It's hard. It's not my place to give advice, but I will say if I can brag about my my brother Hatti a bit. I mean, he has led that organization code dot Org to have so much impact, and you know, tens of millions of kids worldwide are now able to program, and um, and it's it is not just a skill that helps them think, but it also helps them cope.

In Ukraine alone, six and a half million kids use code dot org, which out of a country of forty four million, that's a large number. And um, you know, and having that escape is I'm sure comforting to them. I do also want to I think it's we need to mention that this is not the only unjust war going on right now. You know, war is terrible and it really needs to stop. But there are also kids coding in Iraq, which has been occupied by the US for twenty years now, and their kids coding on codat

organ Yemen, which is being bombed as we speak. And those are wars that I don't think Americans support either, but there was that our government has been supporting. And the sad thing is that these kids are innocence, regardless of their skin color or how they were born or where they're born. It's you know, and it's not fair for them to have to pay some price because of

these wars. Now, I know, one of the most important things to you has been to find tech talent no matter who they are or where they are, and given the tool to succeed, which is what you're doing at NEO. And you have launched this new accelerator. What is the goal here and how will it work in the context

of other opportunities that exist in the tech industry. Yeah, well, you know, I mean my own path was, you know, very much the American dream and that I came to America with not very much other than the ability to program, and that enabled me, you know, to have this power to create and being able to programmings, you can create apps and even build a company. And in my case, I started a company when I was twenty three and

became successful. And um, today, uh, kids who are graduating from college with that ability have the potential to create the the epocal companies of the future. And we've created we've just announced this program, NEO Accelerator, which is aiming specifically for relatively young engineering leaders, you know, one to four years out of college who want to start companies and to give them both financial support and mentorship to

help them build great startups. And it's uh, it's a program that is a three month program that includes a four week long retreat in Oregon to kick it off, where UM founders of companies will live under the same roof alongside each other and mentors UM and it will come culminate at the end of the program with a a pitch date, not to raise more money, but to pitch other engineers, to pitch software engineers to join your team to help you with recruiting, because that's the one

of the toughest problems facing all companies today. Now it's been described as the anti y C, a reference to y Combinator, which is a long established accelerator in Silicon Valley that has been operating here for years. What do you think YC is doing wrong? And how will new do some of those things differently? So why Combinator is an incredible and amazing organization and UM I have it's

incredibly inspiring. I would say it's not an exaggeration to say it's one of the most impactful organizations of the twenty one century if you look at all the amazing companies they've spawned, and I don't think they're doing something wrong. It's said as the startup world has expanded and become more and more vibrant UM. There's room for different UM you know, for different investors to support different types of companies.

And why combinators primary focus or the culmination of the program is to help with fundraising, and it appeals to companies who are struggling with fundraising, you know, and as access to capital has become UM, you know, capital has become more and more abundant in the last couple of years, it hasn't been equally distributed. There are some companies for whom it's really easy to raise funds and that's you know, just less relevant to them, and there's others for whom

it's more difficult. So why Combinator today has UM has really shifted to focus on emerging markets, very large and lucrative opportunity, helping countries from Africa, Latin America, etcetera, get access to capital. And it's an amazing business which is

doing really great work. It is less relevance than it used to be for for top engineers who are perhaps graduating from American universities or graduating from American tech companies like Google or Stripe or Microsoft and starting companies because for them, they don't need help with raising money. They you know, it's so easy for them to raise money these days. They need help with other things, and so we're tailoring a program to help them with the things

that are their challenges. Well, we are excited to watch you try to or start a new chapter in Silicon Valley history. Ali Partovi, CEO of NEO, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your personal story as well. I appreciate it. Coming up, how crypto exchanges can navigate the war, we're gonna be joined by coin Shares to talk about crypto exchanges responsibility at sanctions keep piling on Russia and mean if cryptocurrencies can truly be

regarded as a safe haven. That's next. This is bloomer. After plunging at the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, cryptocurrencies had reasserted themselves as a refuge in recent days, but after bitcoin rallied more than six over the last two days, it's starting to lose some steam as the possibility of expanding sanctions has been raised to prevent Russians from using cryptocurrencies as a work around restrictions. I want to bring in my next guest to talk about this

and much more. Melton demurrors. The chief strategy officer at coin Shares Melton, what do you make of all of this back and forth then up and down. Is bitcoin really a safe haven or not? Yeah, it's it's great to be here. I wish it were under better circumstances.

I think this has been a really interesting few weeks. Um. Not only do we have this conflict happening in Western Europe in Eastern Europe, but we also recently had um the Canadian truckers and their access to the banking system getting getting cut off, which again was an instance where there was a lot of conversation around bitcoin, around cryptocurrency.

At the end of the day, I think what we're seeing here is a growing awareness around the world that for the first time, people, right citizens who really are the victims of wars that are are fought by superpowers, they have a choice. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are non political

global money. And again we're seeing not only an increasing trading activity in Ukraine and Russia, but also a lot of the trading activities coming from the US as people are looking at what's unfolding around the world, and maybe this is the start of this Bitcoin no longer being a risk on asset, but potentially over time becoming a risk off asset. Now, a couple of weeks is really

not enough time for that thesis to play out. But I think in the coming months, in the coming years, we're certainly going to be able to have a lot more data that allow as US to more definitively proved that relationship holds over time. Now, crypto exchanges have said they'll comply with sanctions but not do a blanket ban on all Russian users. What do you make of how they're navigating this and can they really differentiate between Russian

tycoons if you will, and everyday Russians. Yeah, absolutely, and look that's a great question. Um. In twenty eighteen is when we saw Finn sen Um and Treasury issue the first sanction against a bitcoin wallet address. Now, one of the interesting challenges here is a bitcoin wallet address just a string of characters you can attach it to a person, although there are a lot of tools that allow us

to do that. And obviously, any time you want to interact the legacy financial system, meaning meaning thee out currencies, which is the money we spend and use. That's the money that oligarchs and tycoons have to use to buy fuel for their jets and their yachts. Um you're interacting typically with a financial institution which will do a out

of background checks and gather data on who you are. Now, at the end of the day, I think the stance that many changes have taken is they're going to comply with the rules as they're written, and at the end of the day, private citizens in Ukraine and Russia and any part of the world that are not subject to blanket sanctions should be allowed to use these platforms just as they have in the past. And again, anyone who is the subject of an official sanction, anyone who's on

an ol fact list, will be blocked. Now, what happens in the decentralized side of this is obviously much more challenging to control, but at the end of the day, it's very difficult to move millions, tens hundreds of millions of dollars and move them in and out of crypto without touching the legacy financial institution. So again it's really at those end points where we're touching cash the control is going to be happening. Now, after raising almost forty

seven million dollars in donation via cryptocurrency. Ukraine has been so crypto forward, and you know, accessing all of these new technology, some of these things would be unheard of here in the United States. They said they would air drop rewards to those who contributed, though then they said they were they're canceling that, but they're now talking about auctioning off n f T s. What do you make of their use and exploration of these new technologies. Look,

I think it's absolutely incredible. Over thirty five thousand different wallet addresses have given close to fifty million dollars in direct aid to the government of Ukraine and in real time right with settlements to this wallet address that's owned by the Ukrainian government. Now, in contrast, the country has raised two D seventy million in war bonds and received three D fifty million in military aid from the US. So while fifty millions not a huge number, it's a

sizable number that can really make a difference. Now, what's really cool about this to me is anyone in the world could give money. This is non political, global money that's transferred on the Internet. So anyone with an Internet connection, whether they live in Africa, whether they live in Southeast Asia, whether they live in the US. They can send money either via an intermediary or directly via their own wallet, and I think that's really exciting. Um it brings a

lot of transparencies. While in terms of where the donations are going, we're not shipping palettes of cash into these countries, which is what's been done in the past and these conflicts, but we're able to confirm with certainty that these funds

are going to go to the government. And what's really exciting isn't a matter of hours a decentralized exchange protocol called unit swap actually was able to spin up a really cool new product that would allow people to convert any token into donation that would send directly to Ukraining government. So the fact that we can do this in hours, I think is incredible. The fact that the crypto community

has mobilized around this, I think is incredibly exciting. And again, I think Ukraine's embrace of this is acknowledgement that the world is supporting the people of Ukraine. The world wants to help and whether they get a token or an n f T indicating their support. We buy things all the time. People buy poppies on Remembrance Day, people buy bumper stickers to denote their support of specific causes in

the digital world right on the internet. Um, we might buy n F t s or we might donate to get a digital tope and that indicates our support of a cause. Well, I appreciate your enthusiasm and helping us put all of this into context. It has been amazing to watch the way that Ukraine has taken advantage of this new technology and how the world has responded. Melton Demeor's chief strategy officer at coin Shares, thank you for

joining us. Shares of electric pickup maker Rivian dropping to another record low Thursday after the startup you turned on a decision to raise prices for preorder customers the backtrack, just forty eight hours after the company first announced it would boost the price of its R one T pickup by and it's R one S suv by twenty present. Joining us now at leoad Logo covers Rivian And where do we stand now? Are the prices rising or not? Yeah? So the prices are rising if you make an order today.

So anyone that was a pre order customer or put their order in before March the first will pay the original prices. You know there were a number of cancelations. I spoke with Rivan. They wouldn't tell me how many, but you can find a number of upset customers on Twitter. So you know, when they first launched this product, that the price of the pickup truck, for example, was sixty seven thousand, five dollars. If you ordered before March the first, at any time in the last couple of years, you'll

pay that price. But going forward, as an example of the R one t you're paying sevent more almost eighty dollars. It's a big jump. I still don't understand why they thought they could raise the prices on people who had ordered something, you know, potentially as much as many as two years ago. But okay, I mean there's some broader significance here beyond customers being upset, which I do understand. Talk to us about why this really matters. Well, it's

a great point. You saw that quote there from the CEO R J. Scaryinge. He wrote this letters of customers basically saying that this is supply problems right, semiconductor shortage, rising input costs, look at what's happening in global commodities markets. They had to do something, but they just got it wrong in the way they went about it, making it relevant to pre order customers. Remember, this is a company that had the sixth biggest I p O in history.

It has billions of dollars on its balance sheet at its disposal, but it's years away from profitability, years away from being cash flow positive. So this really matters. You know, Joe's fact RBC calculated that by backtracking, they're they're leaving about eight d and fifty million dollars of potential revenue on the table when you take into account the worst

case scenario of cancelation. So this is really meaningful. But it's a classic hiccup for a company that's grown really big, really fast, but isn't really building that in any trucks yet. How do you think the higher prices will impact demand and quickly? Great question, because we don't know who they're competing with, right which are they going off to Tesla or Tesla has lower price points. Are they going off to the premium segment or trying to go to traditional

pickup buyers. Remember, you know, Ribbing kind of builds itself as the patagon ear of the evy world for adventurers explorers, So this is a question going forward how relevant these products will be with customers. All right, Bloodlow, thanks for bringing us that story. We'll see how that continues to fall out. And that does it for this edition of

Bloomberg Technology. We're gonna be joined tomorrow by Jesse Powell, CEO Craft and himself to talk about the rise in crypto during the war, the impact of sanctions and their approach. You don't want to miss that conversation. He's been pretty active on Twitter about this. We'll be back with that tomorrow. I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberk