el producto #258 🚀
Nike NFTs, Robinhood crypto gifting, Amazon grocery delivery, Web3 playbook, Airtable funding, Reddit IPO, Timelined roadmap trap, Apple privacy reports & more
🎰 The week in figures
$40B: Ed-tech firm Byju's is in talks to go public through a SPAC deal that could value the company at $40B+; the Bangalore-based startup, India's most valuable, reportedly has entered advanced discussions with Churchill Capital
$7.7B: Crypto scams netted a near record high of $7.7B in 2021. The high represents an 80% increase from 2020
2B: Instagram has surpassed 2B MAUs worldwide. The news (which smells a bit like a planned leak) paints a picture of a company unaffected by the recent congressional scrutiny and whistleblowing. Instagram passed 1B users in June 2018, after 8 years, but only took 3 years to hit 2B. The growth is notable given TikTok’s quick rise, as it’s an indication that users aren’t necessarily abandoning one app for the other
$805M: Samsara, a cloud platform for IoT data, raises $805M at an $11.4B valuation at IPO
$735M: San Francisco-based business flow and processes app Airtable raised a $735M Series F at a $11B valuation — almost double its valuation from earlier in the year
$380M: Learning platform Course Hero raises $380M Series C at a $3.6B valuation; the firm has recently closed multiple acquisitions, including those of CliffsNotes and LitCharts, and plans to continue M&A to address new areas of education, such as professional skills
$325M: Rokt, which provides personalized marketing solutions for e-commerce, raises $325M Series E at a ~$2B valuation; the startup expects $230M in revenue for this year, up from $100M last year, and to go public in 2023; the company claims 3k businesses and advertisers as clients, including Domino's, GoDaddy, and SiriusXM
$278M: Cockroach Labs, the company behind the open-source, cloud-based SQL database CockroachDB, raises $278M Series F for a $5B+ valuation; the platform promises true elastic scaling and resilience, serving clients in finance, gambling, gaming, manufacturing, and other industries; customers include Comcast, eBay, and Starbuck's
$266M: Social network and content platform ShareChat raises $266M Series G at a $3.7B valuation; the Indian company has raised $913M this year alone; ShareChat expects its creator community to earn $100M per year by the end of 2023; the firm will use the funding to focus on social and live commerce, more
$170M: Dialpad, which provides a cloud platform for internal communications and customer engagement, raises $170M at a $2.2B valuation; investors valued Dialpad at $1.2B for a $100M round disclosed in October of last year; the platform offers messaging, video chat, and more with AI-powered transcriptions, etc
$165M: Enterprise orchestration platform SnapLogic raises $165M at a $1B valuation; the company serves enterprises, automating processes for finance, HR, IT, marketing, and other departments through app and data integration; customers include Adobe, Box, and GameStop
$145M: Ninjacart, which operates a B2B supply chain for fresh produce, raises $145M from Walmart and Flipkart; the deal reportedly values the Indian firm at $750M-$800M, up from a $500M valuation in May; Flipkart plans to expand its rapid grocery delivery business Flipkart Quick to 200 cities by the end of next year, and will rely upon Ninjacart to facilitate the growth
$141M: Video game-centric VC firm VGames raises a $141M for its second fund; the Tel Aviv-based firm raised $60M in March of last year for its first fund and has invested in 21 studios to date; VGames focuses on content first and writes checks for teams creating engaging titles using NFTs, Web 3, and more
$120M: Gtmhub, a platform for managing objectives and key results, raises $120M Series C; the system integrates with 160+ tools and platforms and can pull data from any spreadsheet or SQL database; applications include diversity and inclusion analysis, enterprise portfolio management, and hyper-growth initiatives
$120M: Influencer marketing startup Mavrck raises $120M; the Boston firm helps enterprise consumer brands including Disney, Netflix, and Reebok source influencers for sponsored campaigns and manage those relationships; the platform also detects influencer fraud and analyzes brand safety risks
$40M: Swimply, a marketplace for swimming pool rentals, raises $40M; owners list pools and set hourly rates and rules, such as capacity limits, pet policies, etc; guests rate listings and leave reviews; the startup has seen 250k bookings over the past year, up from 40k for all of 2020
$24.7M: Community platform Circle raises $24.7M Series A; the startup serves creators and brands, enabling them to bring their community members to a central location for chats, livestreams, events, etc; the white-label platform claims 4k customers, including Adobe
📰 What’s going on
Amazon plans to expand its grocery delivery service (known internally as Fresh Marketplace) in Europe next year and to launch it in the US; the company launched the service in UK this year; Prime subscribers there can order from two major grocery chains for delivery by contracted Flex drivers
Apple publicly released iOS 15.2. The new software includes many of the features that were delayed from shipping in the original 15.0 release, including the new App Privacy Report which lets users know which apps are accessing their private information, like their photos, location, contacts, microphone and camera over the past seven days. It also includes an Emergency SOS update, the Apple Music Voice Plan, support for Legacy Contacts who can access your Apple ID when you die, Hide My Email, Communication Safety for Messages and more
Apple job listings indicate the firm plans to develop wireless chips in-house; the company is hiring in Irvine, CA, where Broadcom, Skyworks, and other wireless chip makers hold offices, and seeks people with experience in modem chips; shares of Qualcomm and other wireless chip firms fell on Thursday following the news
Apple launched its Siri-only Voice Plan for Apple Music, which directs users how to speak their requests for music to Siri instead of using the Apple Music app. The app offers a simplified interface showing them recent requests and a few other things. The plan costs $4.99/month, and is designed mainly for HomePod and AirPods users, though it works across Apple devices
Instagram is testing 60-second videos in Stories. The company already expanded Reels from 30 to 60 seconds earlier this summer
Twitter adds an auto-captions feature to make videos more accessible on its platform. Captions have also become a popular way to watch videos without sound, and are common to TikTok-like feeds — such as the one Twitter is now testing
Google is hiring for roles to work on an “Augmented Reality OS” for an “innovative AR device.” Google Glass coming back?
Robinhood is launching crypto gifting, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, more. The new feature, which will become available on Dec. 22, will let users send as little as $1 of up to seven cryptocurrencies across US
LinkedIn launched a new app in China just months after sunsetting the local version of LinkedIn in the region. The new app, InCareer, is aimed at helping Chinese mainland professionals find jobs and companies locate great talent in China
Reddit announces it has confidentially filed for IPO; the company said it hadn't yet determined the number of shares on offer or a price range; founded in 2005, Reddit sold to Condé Nast in 2006 and spun back out in 2011
Nike acquires RTFKT, which develops virtual sneakers and other digital collectibles as NFTs; terms undisclosed; RTFKT collaborated with artist FEWOCiOUS to launch real shoes alongside NFT versions in February and sold 600 pairs in six minutes, bringing in ~$3.1M
Micro-mobility firm Tier acquires Wind Mobility's Italian subsidiary Vento Mobility; terms undisclosed; Berlin-based Tier bought German bike-sharing platform Nextbike last month; the Vento deal marks Tier's entrance into the Italian market; Wind recently sold its Israel operations to Russia's Yandex
📚 Good reads
The vicious cycle of the Timeline Roadmap, by Janna Bastow. It’s not the format of the roadmap that gives or sucks the life out of your product. It’s how you manage delivery dates. The added pressure of stacked-up delivery dates results in a vicious cycle that makes it harder and harder to be lean. Conversely, freeing yourself of arbitrary deadlines, and instead focusing on outcomes and prioritizing solving problems first, allows your team to deliver quality products, iterate as the market requires, and do so in a considerably less stressful environment
The Web3 playbook: using token incentives to bootstrap new networks. Networks get more valuable with more participants, which is great when they are at scale, but cuts the other way when starting out. This is the bootstrapping problem. Chris Dixon explains how using tokens can incentivize early adopters and give latent value while networks build momentum and take off
Why it’s too early to get excited about Web3, by Tim O’Reilly. By looking back at history, O’Reilly elaborates on the question whether Web3 is at the foundational investment period of a new subcycle, or the bubble period of the preceding one. The underlying components of a “Web3 era” are here to stay; the question is how
Metrics-driven Product Development. Daniel Schmidt’s startup, DoubleLoop, helps build strategic diagrams to represent the relationship between work and metrics
16 gift ideas for Product Managers and Designers, by Kyle Evans, and 6 digital gift ideas by Startup Grind
Have a great weekend
Angel
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